Diary drama
by flyin'rabbit
Summary: Rose Weasley's diary has been stolen and she is determined to get it back. With the help of her cousin Lily, will she manage to retrieve her diary before it's too late?
1. Stolen secrets

**A/N**: Hi :) This is going to be my first novel-sized story (about time); this is pretty much a sort-of prologue. Hopefully you'll enjoy it!

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the world of Harry Potter. Not now, not in the next chapter, never.

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"Calm down, Rose, easy. Deep breath in, and breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Calm. Easy. Count to ten. Close your eyes. You're above this. Far above this. You can handle it. Don't make them think they've won. You can deal with this. Calm. Deep breaths."

"Rose? Why are you talking to yourself?" My head snaps up and I see my cousin Lily looking at me concernedly. My eyes flicker over to the Ravenclaw table, and Lily gets the message immediately. "Oh Rose, what did they do now?" she asks sympathetically.

I look around to see if anyone is listening in; that isn't the case. But of course, who would want to listen in to a conversation between two very normal, very ordinary Gryffindors like Lily and myself? Anyway. "They found my diary," I say softly, and Lily gasps. It's good to have a cousin who actually _understands_ me and _sympathises _and _isn't_ laughing his head off as one of the culprits. I continue, "And now they're reading it, probably, and they already told me that they will read some passages aloud when they find anything juicy."

"You're kidding, right?" Lily asks. Her eyes turn to slits as she gazes at the only red and gold speck at the Ravenclaw table. "How did they even find it?"

"Beats me," I reply, shrugging. Alright, that is a lie. I may have left my diary in the common room last night before going on patrols, but that should be no reason for them to confiscate it!

"Do you want me to talk to Al?" Lily asks, her eyes on the Ravenclaw table once more.

"I don't think it'll do much good," I say, and I sigh. "It'll only encourage him. Them."

Lily nods pensively. "And – are there any juicy passages in your diary?"

"Depends on what you would call 'juicy'," I answer. "Would that be other people's secrets, gossip, my dreams and nightmares…" After a meaningful silence, I look at Lily, who is now drumming her fingers against the table.

"I could always write mum and dad," she offers, "they might be able to convince Al to give you your diary back …"

I can already picture Al's face as he receives another Howler Aunt Ginny sent him, and I grin. "Perhaps…" I say vaguely. "But maybe I'd better think of a way to get it back without informing the whole family."

Lily nods in understanding. Did I mention how great a cousin she is in times of need? "Once they read your diary to the entire school, they'll find out anyway, eventually," she says, tearing apart my recently obtained optimism. "What's the worst that could happen if anyone finds out what's in there?"

I think for a moment. An unknown number of relationships will be torn apart, among them, I remember suddenly, Al's own relationship with Erin Vane. Not that I would mind, I can't stand either of them. Students might get in detention for pulling pranks here and there (I am sure, at this very moment, that James should be happy to have already graduated, so he's unable to serve detention for everything I wrote down but no one else ever found out). People would find out about the scandalous scenes I come across while patrolling hallways at night. They would find out what I dreamed about at night (and during the day, at that), what I wanted to do with my life, my goals, my hopes, everything. Why I even keep a diary is now unclear to me.

"We have to get that diary back," I tell Lily in a serious tone. "Otherwise, I might not survive this." Merlin forbid that they'll find out that I fancy… no, I shouldn't think about it. If that happens, my life will officially be over.

And if anyone finds out that it was me who accidentally set fire in the cupboard where the school brooms are stored away, I can forget about becoming Head Girl next year at all.

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**A/N**: Well, what do you think so far? Let me know, please review!


	2. Trifling threats?

**A/N**: Chapter two, enjoy!

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"Rosie!" As I walk towards my first class of the day (Charms), I suddenly feel an arm being wrapped around me. It seems that someone decided that they'd rather be dead now than… some other time. "My _favourite_ cousin!"

Wrenching myself out of his grip (for which I _may_ have used my nails… What? He could've seen it coming!), I reply, "Albus! My diary stealer!"

"Oh, Rosie," he says airily, "you know it's just for fun, right? We mean no harm." Excuse me while I snort. No harm? Yes, Al, and Voldemort meant no harm either. "_Really_. We don't. We're just having a good time."

"Well, I'm not," I respond stiffly. "Now give me back my diary or do I have to snatch it from your corpse?"

He laughs, but, although he tries to cover it up, it doesn't sound completely genuine. Considering the fact that I almost drowned him in the bathtub when we were little, and later in the swimming pool, on more than one occasion, and judging from the fact that he's now walking a little further away from me, I can happily conclude that he is really sort of afraid of me at the moment. I love to be intimidating.

"Albus," I say threateningly, "I mean it. Give me my diary back."

"I don't have it," he replies, a smirk slowly forming on his face. "Do you really think we'd risk losing it again, now that we have it? Do you really think we're that stupid?" Well – maybe. I mean, the other three are Ravenclaws, but Al can be rather stupid at times. He's dating _Erin Vane_. That's all the proof you need.

I look around swiftly. Nobody is there. Perfect. With a loud war cry, I jump Albus and try to grab his bag from him. Yes – I love being dramatic on occasion. Anyway, I seem to have caught Al by surprise, for he doesn't do anything at first. That gives me the chance to rip open his bag and spill its contents on the floor. And then he falls, but fortunately (for me), I fall on top of him instead of the other way around. If we weren't related, this would be very awkward, I think.

I frantically search through his stuff, only to conclude that he was right – he doesn't have my diary. He was speaking the truth – _for once_.

"Al? Rose? What are you two doing on the floor?" _Oh no. No no no no no no no no_. This is just cruel. This _cannot_ be happening. This – ouch!

"Al!" I shout at him as he shoves me off of him to get up. Perfect. I look like a fool now.

"Rose here," Al starts, nodding towards me. All the niceness in his voice is gone and to be honest, I am glad for that. He hasn't been nice to me for years now. "Rose here decided to jump me for no reason."

"Not true!" I protest, picking myself up from the floor as well. I try to smooth out my skirt and hair and then plant my hands on my hips. "He stole my diary and I want it back. Is that so difficult to believe?" Too late do I realise that I just _snapped_. I shouldn't _snap_. To Al, by all means, yes, but to him? That's just not done.

"I'd rather stay out of this," he says quickly, and I notice that he's beginning to grow red. He's so cute when he's uncomfortable. Alright, Rose, focus.

"It's good to know that there are still decent people at this school," I say, not daring to look him in the eye but glaring at Al instead. "You should really follow your friend's example, Al." With that, I walk away. As soon as I am around the corner, I stop again. _Decent people? Decent? Seriously? And 'your friend'? As if I don't even know his name!_

I manage to refrain myself from banging my head into the wall, and choose to continue walking towards the Charms classroom instead. I sit down next to Miranda Davies, a Ravenclaw girl in my year. It's either her, or Malfoy. The moment Al walks in and takes his seat next to Malfoy, I realise that this would've been a great chance for me to interrogate him, since if I would've sat down there, neither of his cronies would be anywhere near. Now Al can just sit with his best mate (don't even ask how that happened – I have no idea), which, of course, he did, and they start whispering immediately. Judging from the looks they cast my way, I have a feeling that I know what they are talking about. Lovely.

Miranda and I don't talk very much (alright, only when necessary). We hardly know each other, so we don't have a lot to talk about anyway.

"Rose!" I whip around, half expecting to see Al again, before realising that it was a female voice that called my name. And indeed, it is my other Potter cousin who's still attending Hogwarts.

"Lily! What's wrong?"

Lily smiles wryly. "Al keeps talking about how you… assaulted him in the middle of a corridor. Please tell me he's lying?"

I cough, and I'm pretty sure my facial colour strongly resembles that of my hair at this point. "Actually, he's telling the truth for once, Lily. I kind of – jumped him because he was taunting me about my diary."

Lily's face darkens. "What did he say?"

"He's not giving it back," I tell her, even though she probably already guessed that he hadn't returned my diary to me. "So I wanted to take it back myself, but someone else must've had it at that point."

Lily nods. "Are you sure I shouldn't write mum and dad?"

"Positive," I say, feeling confident all of a sudden. I'll get that diary back myself, no matter what I have to do for it. They will never, _ever_ read even one letter I wrote in there. I am sure of that.

"Rose? Why are you suddenly grinning like a maniac?"

Hastily, I wipe the grin off my face and stare ahead blankly. "I don't know what you're talking about, Lily. But would you mind helping me to get my diary back?"

She shrugs in response. "Sure, I guess. That'll teach Al to mess with us!" And that is our cue to start laughing evilly. You'd almost think we practise this regularly. The students who pass by _do_ look a little scared, so we must be laughing quite impressively. Or, you know, they might fear that going to the same school as the two lunatics that they may hold Lily and me for right now will make them insane as well.

Walking towards the common room after dinner, I am intercepted once again. Three guesses who now… right, it's Al again. I cross my arms and glare at him, but he is not impressed. Shame.

"I think you owe me an apology," he says bluntly, and my eyebrows shoot up.

"Excuse me?" I laugh humourlessly. "_I_ owe _you_ an apology? Are you not the person who stole my diary?"

Al's face remains utterly blank. "You attacking me earlier was completely uncalled for."

"And you stealing my diary was _not_ uncalled for?" I can not believe this boy's nerve. If he didn't look exactly like his father, I would say he was adopted. We simply _cannot_ be related.

"That's not the point – " he starts, but I interrupt him.

"That _is_ the point, Al! If you hadn't stolen my diary, I wouldn't have had to jump you earlier! So it is your own stupid fault if you got hurt."

He snorts. "Hurt? You wish, Rosie."

We are now in front of the Fat Lady, and after giving her the password, I scramble in, hoping that my cousin will leave me alone now. Unfortunately, I have no such luck.

"Anyway, Rose," he starts, and I noticed that his voice is suddenly much calmer and nicer. Very suspicious. "Let's make a deal, alright? You tell me how to unlock that diary of yours – " At this, I snort. Does he _honestly_ expect me to tell him that? Wait a second – that means that they haven't read it yet! " – so, Rosie, what do you think?"

"Think of what?" I ask. I missed the second half of his proposition due to my superb concentration skills. "Of how I'm going to tell you how to read my diary? How stupid do you think I am?"

His eyes narrow. "So you'd rather wait until we find out ourselves and make it known to the entire school what you've written?"

"No," I tell him, and a victorious smirk forms on his lips, "I'd much rather have my diary back, thank you very much." The smirk disappears as quickly as it appeared, and Al narrows his eyes again.

"You can forget about that, Rose," he says softly, but angrily, and then he stomps past me towards the boys' dorms.

Drat. Now they are going to do absolutely everything to find out how to read my diary. Walking up the stairs to my own dorm, I mull over the options I have. I could tell them how they can open it and not know what they will do then (firstly because I didn't hear Al say that part, and secondly because I don't know if I can (or should) trust them). I quickly decide against that. Perhaps it will be better to just keep on trying to get it back and hope that they won't be able to read it in the meantime.

What are the chances of them finding out? They have to learn of and master a spell I thought up especially to keep nosy people away. Besides, I have to say the spell _and_ hold the diary. There is no way that they can ever open it and read what I wrote.

Feeling more confident now, I grab a few books and go to the library. I have to finish two essays and the sooner I am done with that, the sooner I can go back to my diary hunting.

When I am halfway done with my Charms essay – I finished the Potions one already – footsteps approach my table. I don't look up because this happens all the time, and usually, those footsteps just pass by. Now, however, they don't.

"Weasley," a voice says, and from the shuffling of feet in front of me, I conclude that there has to be more than one person standing there. Looking up, I see that I was right; it is Al and his buddies, and it is Malfoy who has spoken. Therefore, I focus my attention on him.

"Malfoy," I say as coldly as I possibly can. "What do you want now?" My question is actually directed at Al, though I keep on glaring at Malfoy.

"We want to know your secret." Malfoy's voice is barely audible, yet I can hear him loud and clear.

"Forget about that," I answer in an equally low voice. A swift glance at Al tells me that he already expected this. Obviously, Malfoy didn't believe him when he told him about me denying them the right to read my diary and now the idiot wanted to see for himself. "Now, leave me alone. I have some work left to do and I don't need _you_ polluting _my_ air." I glance at a spot somewhere in between Al and Malfoy as I say this, but then I return to my essay. I can hear the sound of their feet as they walk away in defeat and I smirk to myself. Too soon, unfortunately.

"This is not over, Rose." Apparently, Al stayed behind a little longer. "This war has barely started."

I glare at him, narrowing my eyes. "Bring it on, dear cousin. Or should I write your parents, perhaps? I bet they'll love to hear what you've done now." I shake my head in mock disappointment, but Al just rolls his eyes.

"If that's how you want to play, Rosie, then go ahead," he says through clenched teeth. "I would've expected you to be up to the challenge. Obviously, I was wrong."

By now, I am standing as well. Unfortunately, I'm still many inches shorter than him. "Like I said, Albus – _bring it on_." I grab my books and with my head up high, I quickly exit the library as Madam Pince (yes, she's still here. How? I have no idea) starts shouting at Al for raising his voice in the library (ironic, no?).

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**A/N**: Once again, what do you think? Like it, hate it? Let me know, please review? :)


	3. Unseen and unforeseen

**A/N**: Chapter three, everyone! Hopefully you'll enjoy it :) Don't forget to leave a review ;)

**Disclaimer**: The chapter title is inspired by one of the chapters in PoA. Needless to say, I don't own that.

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"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Lily asks. She doesn't seem convinced that this 'brilliant' plan of mine will work.

"Uh – I think it is." Yes, not even I am completely convinced by this plan my brain came up with.

We are sitting in the Gryffindor common room together and we're trying to think of a plan to get my diary back. We can't hex them because they might not be able to give it back. Or they might still be able to refuse to give it back. Besides, if anyone finds out (and they _will_), we'll be dead. Obviously, writing our parents won't help either, because they can't force them to give my diary back while we're here. We can't blackmail them either: apart from Al, we know next to nothing embarrassing about them, and Al has an awful lot of blackmail material on us too (and to think he hasn't even read my diary!).

So now we have to resort to more creative ways to retrieve my diary. Fortunately, Lily decided to stick with me on my quest. When I asked her why, she just shrugged and said that she had her reasons to be mad at Al too. She didn't want to say more, but I'm sure I'll find out someday.

"Can't we just summon it?" Lily puts forward, sitting up.

I sigh and shake my head. "I'm afraid not. I put an Anti-Summoning charm on it to prevent people from randomly summoning my diary." Yes, I'm pretty paranoid when it comes to things like this. And leave it to me to make it completely unnecessary for people to summon it because they can just find it lying about in the common room.

"Why?" Lily wants to know. "If they can't read it anyway, why would you need to put that charm on it? Besides, you could just summon it back, right?" Ah, Lily. She's always my voice of reason. Well, sometimes, that is. Like now. I don't know what to say to that so I keep my mouth shut. I smile at her apologetically. I feel stupid. Mum would be ashamed of me.

"So," Lily breaks the silence after a minute, "could you repeat your plan once more, to make sure I heard it correctly?"

I grimace; my plan doesn't even seem that appealing to me anymore. "I attack them, and when they're all out cold, you sneak into the Ravenclaw boys' dorms to find the diary."

"You do realise that you would be totally outnumbered, right?" Lily asks matter-of-factly. "As much as I believe in you, Rose, fighting three or four boys on your own might be a little too much."

I sigh. Since Al doesn't have my diary (yes, we've already checked his dorm), the only logical place where it could be is the Ravenclaw Tower. We need to get in there, find my diary, and steal it back. The only problem is that we can't really get into the Ravenclaw Tower without being seen.

Seen…?

"Lily," I whisper frantically. Why I'm even whispering is not important; our common room is nearly deserted at this moment. Let's just say it makes the entire situation much more exciting and mysterious. "Do you know where Al keeps the Cloak?"

She looks at me strangely for a split-second, and then her eyes widen. "The Cloak! Of course! Rose, you're a genius!" She grins at me and I can't help but grin back. "Do you want to go to the Ravenclaw common room now?"

I think for a moment before deciding that we'd better get this over with. If we wait longer, those boys might think of the Cloak as well. I nod and Lily is already on her feet. She looks around, hastily sprints up the stairs towards Al's dorm, and returns not too long afterwards, holding something in her hand.

"Al should really be more careful with his stuff," she pants, handing me the Invisibility Cloak that, apparently, has been in the Potter family for ages. "It was just lying there, on his bed."

Snorting, I silently praise Al and his slackness and I grin again. "Let's go," I tell Lily. We exit the common room and walk a couple of corridors before reaching a deserted one. There, we get under the Cloak. Somehow, we manage to do this, and we can still walk rather normally. The perk of being rather short teenage girls. The _only_ perk, yes.

We walk towards the Ravenclaw common room in silence, and I can't shake off the feeling that we're forgetting about something important. I look down at our feet, but our shoelaces are all tied. Shaking my head, I walk on. It's probably not that important anyway.

Standing in front of the entrance to the common room, we are faced with a problem. We'll have to… do whatever one does to get in there, and for that, we will have to talk. And even with the amount of magic in this castle, I doubt this eagle-like thing will let a voice in.

We walk away again, but only a couple of feet. "How are we going to get in?" Lily whispers, glaring at the statue that's guarding the Ravenclaw tower.

"One of us could go and see what that statue wants while the other stays under the Cloak?" I offer.

"But Rose, even if we get in, we have no idea what it's like once we pass the statue! If there's no such thing as a small hallway where that person can slip underneath the Cloak again, we'll be seen! And what if someone's coming out at the same time we're going in?" Alright, I know that I said before that Lily is my voice of reason, but sometimes, that's quite annoying.

"Do you have other ideas, then?" I ask her, perhaps a little too loud.

"Ssshh!" she hisses. "Maybe we can get in when someone goes in or out… we just walk in after them."

Knowing that we don't really have a lot of other options, I nod. We sneak back towards the eagle and wait. I really hope that someone will come along soon.

And aren't we lucky. When we almost decide to give up (we didn't even need to talk for this; Lily and I are masters when it comes to interpreting each other's weird looks and eyebrow gestures), we hear people coming. We stand even closer to the entrance, and once the Ravenclaws (third years at most) answered a riddle, they step in, and we squeeze in after them. If we had been a little slower, we would've been smashed in the backs by the entrance eagle shutting.

Right, so _this_ is the famous Ravenclaw common room. I think both Lily and I expected something spectacular from all the times Al bragged about how awesome and amazing it is (yes, dear Albus is a Gryffindor; no, he doesn't show it). But it's just like the Gryffindor common room, apart from some obvious differences (like the colours, for example). Nothing too special.

Either way, now that we're in, we're going to go all the way, get up those stairs and get my diary back. Our dearest friends will probably be in the library anyway.

We quietly sneak over to what we assume is the staircase to the boys' dorms, but then, I suddenly feel something grab my arm. I almost shriek, before realising that it's only Lily. She looks at me with wide eyes and gestures towards the Entrance. _Shit_. They're here. All four of them. Oh dear. He's here – I mean, they're here. And they're heading our way. Laughing, talking, but worst of all, walking.

Then, all of a sudden, they head towards the chairs and couches instead and sit down _as if they own the place_. When I think about it, they probably think they do. Except for Lorcan, of course. He at least has the decency (there is that word again. Why does that word always come up when I'm describing him?) to look mildly modest. He looks around the room while his idiot friends (and twin, of course) start whispering about something and huddle closer together. Even though the common room is rather deserted, we can't hear them. Walking up the stairs would cause too much noise, so we're forced to stay where we are. Oh well, at least I can marvel at the beautiful sight that is Lorcan Scamander right now.

I am pulled out of my daze by Lily pinching my arm and I almost yelp again. Honestly, this girl should really learn not to catch me by surprise like this! She gestures towards the three idiots, who, to my confusion, are snickering over something now, and Lorcan is looking… surprised. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Suddenly, Al jumps off the couch and wanders through the common room without any directions. When he walks past us, both Lily and I try to contain our breathing, and right when we think we're safe, Al turns around, takes one step in our direction and pulls the Cloak off. So there we are, standing against a wall in the Ravenclaw common room, where a maniacal cousin is holding our previous shelter, and three other boys are staring at us in wonder, disbelief and amusement. I repeat, _shit_.

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**A/N**: Hm, so what do you think? Minor cliff-hanger ;) Anyway, if you have any comments, questions, or anything else – don't hesitate to leave a review! Even if you don't have anything to say – review, please!


	4. Misjudged Maps

**A/N**: Chapter 4 :) Hopefully you'll like it!

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This is not good. This is not good _at all_. I feel terribly exposed. I glance sideways at Lily; she doesn't look very impressed by Al's action. And I have to admit, my embarrassment probably has more to do with the fact that I'm now being stared at by two gorgeous, beautiful blue eyes (times two, but the second pair doesn't count) than with Albus discovering us.

"What are you doing here?" Malfoy finally asks, breaking the silence.

I can't find words to form a coherent sentence, but fortunately, Lily can. She really is my saviour. "Getting back what is rightfully ours," she says defiantly. "Well, what's rightfully Rose's," she corrects herself after a second.

Al snorts. "Well, that's not going to happen now, is it?"

Lily now turns towards him, and I have to give him some credit for not flinching at all at Lily's glare, like Malfoy did. Yes, sure – they grew up together. But so did I, practically, and I still think Lily is quite scary right now. "Watch us," she growls. Before I realise what's happening, Lily grabs my wrist and drags me towards the staircase, and up the stairs. This goes well until Al decides that it's pull-Rose's-arms-and-see-how-long-it-takes-before-she-spontaneously-combusts day.

Unfortunately for our cause, but fortunately for me, Lily isn't quite as strong as Al and therefore, we are pulled back into the common room rather easily. He smirks. "I'm watching, Lily."

Lily looks about ready to kick someone's (namely, her older brother's) arse, but I manage to hold her back.

"How did you even know we were here?" I ask instead, not really directing the question at anyone in particular.

Now Lysander moves for the first time since we've been discovered. "We had some help," he says quietly, but mockingly. He holds something in the air for us to see, and it only takes us half a second to recognise it: the Marauders Map. On which invisible people are not invisible. Of course. Why didn't we think of that? I feel like slapping my forehead repeatedly, but I'm not going to give them the pleasure.

"Bet you didn't think of that, did you?" Al asks in a mocking tone, and Malfoy smirks gleefully.

"Of course we did," Lily replies before I even have the time to think of an answer. Must have something to do with living under the same roof as Al. "We just didn't think you would go so far as to find us that way. Very low, Al."

Al's face falls, and Malfoy's smirk falters as well. "You're just mad that you were discovered before you could even do anything," Lysander continues for them, still in the same mocking tone he used earlier. "It's actually surprising that you even got this far. Silly little Gryffindors."

Albus turns from us to Lysander within a split second and coughs loudly, raising an eyebrow. It's unbelievable, but it almost seems like Al is the leader of the gang. That proves to me that they are, in fact, stupid, even though I thought earlier on that Al was the only stupid one. Now he turns out to have two idiotic Ravenclaw minions.

"Right, sorry, Al," Lysander apologises, and looks back at us. He seems to think for a moment, and turns to Malfoy. I use this as an opportunity to sneak another look at Lorcan, who is sitting there almost impassively, not watching any of us but staring at his hands instead. Slightly disappointed, I look back at his twin. I had hoped that Lorcan would suddenly grow a backbone (because even I have to admit that he doesn't really have one) and stand up for me… us, but he's obviously not planning on becoming a knight in shining armour anytime soon.

"How am I supposed to insult them?" Lysander suddenly cries out, making some dramatic gestures with his hands. I look at him in wonder. I've known him my entire life, but I never knew he was such a drama queen. Good thing his brother is not. That would be a serious turn-off. "I can't insult their House, I can't insult their family, I can't insult them for not playing Quidditch… what _can_ I insult them for?" Insult us? When did they decide that they were going to insult us? And why?

For a second, everyone is quiet. Then, Malfoy tells him that he _can_ insult us and Al starts yelling at Lysander for even _thinking_ about insulting our family (yes, I'm just as surprised as the next person… which is Lily. So I guess that's not _that_ big an achievement). After dealing with our surprise, Lily and I start laughing, not caring about the fact that we're in the wrong common room or that three of the boys in front of us should actually be Slytherins. No, wait, that would be insulting to Slytherins. They should be sent into the Forbidden Forest and then someone should build a fence around it. Anyway, we're laughing so hard that we're almost rolling around on the floor now.

After a while, we finally calm down and pick ourselves up from the floor. The boys (all four of them, I realise suddenly) are staring at us strangely, and then Lysander shouts out, "I know! You silly little girls!"

Not impressed by his insult-that's-not-really-an-insult (because yes, we are a bit silly, we are little, and we're girls. That's not an insult), we simultaneously roll our eyes. Both Lysander and Malfoy look impressed by this (hehehe), and Al says drily, "I don't think they're going to be begging for our mercy anytime soon if that's the best you can do, Lysander."

Lysander shrugs, and Lily puts her hands on her hips. She sends Al another glare. "We will never be begging for your mercy anyway!" she tells him. "But, you're right," she says, much calmer now, "that wasn't even an insult. That was a fact."

"Yeah?" Lysander says, attempting to sound like he's threatening us. But just like his brother, he just can't pull that off. Not that Lorcan has ever threatened someone. Their background simply doesn't allow them to sound anything more than mildly annoyed. "Well, what do you think of this, you – you… uh – "

Lily and I share a look, and we seem to agree on the fact that Lysander has really lost his mind now.

"You crazy, conniving bitches?" Malfoy suggests, grinning from ear to ear. I bet he's very practised in swearing at girls – every month, there's another girl walking through the school in tears, silently (or sometimes not so silently) cursing his name.

Al blinks and sends his friend a hesitating look, probably torn between joining him in his grin-fest, or kicking his arse for saying something like that to his cousin and little sister. Lily and I just exchange another look. So yeah, that was better, but still, we're crazy and conniving – I won't deny it. About the bitches part, I'm not so sure. Actually, I'm fairly certain that that's not something we are.

In the end, Al doesn't do anything. Why would they want to insult us anyway? It's not like we did something to them. Okay, we almost did, but they themselves made sure that we didn't succeed. Maybe they just have nothing better to do?

"Isn't it time for you two to go back to your own common room?" Lysander says, and he sounds rather bored indeed. I know I would be bored if I, like him, only had a few working brain cells. "It's after curfew."

It is? Huh, will you look at that. Time flies when you're on a diary hunting quest. "How are we going to get back if it's _after_ curfew?" Lily asks, looking pointedly from Lysander to Al.

"Not our concern," he replies, shrugging. "If you get caught, you'll be the one who gets the Howler, not me."

"Unless we tell mum and dad _why_ we were out so late," Lily tells him, and she's starting to sound annoyed again. "And don't _you_ have to go back too?"

"Hey," Al says, "I have the Cloak, _and_ the Map. I'll get back." Lily visibly has trouble restraining herself. In the end, she just stomps her foot.

"You will pay for this," she says, almost shaking with anger, pointing a finger towards Al. Then she turns to me. "Well, let's go then," she tells me, sounding defeated. All of a sudden, though, she brightens up. "But wait a second! You're a Prefect! You are _allowed_ to walk through the school past curfew!"

Before I can correct her, someone else does so. "But if Rose isn't scheduled for patrols tonight, she isn't allowed to do so." Call me a lovesick puppy, but I _love_ the way my name sounds when Lorcan says it. "Which reminds me, I'm running late for my patrol." He gets up from his chair and hesitates. "I can walk you back, if you want to." Oh Merlin. I think I am dreaming. Someone, pinch me please, keep me awake, or I think I'll fall into a trance and never wake up again.

"Ouch!" Lily must've gotten some sort of telepathic message from me, for she poked me rather harshly. As I rub my side, I attempt to glare at Lily, which is pretty impossible since I can't stop grinning like a fool. Very smooth, Rose. "Uh – that would be – uh – lovely!" I manage to reply, and then, all hell breaks loose.

"You're going to walk them back to their common room?" Lysander shouts at his brother. "After what they've done to us?"

"On whose side _are_ you?" Malfoy wants to know, but Al hesitates again. He might, after all, not be very comfortable with the idea that his little sister is walking through the school after curfew, with me, the crazy cousin, as her only companion. So he doesn't say anything.

Lorcan just ignores the comments the others make and walks towards the exit of the common room, Lily and I following closely. We don't look around because we know what we'll see; smug, smirking faces.

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? If you have any comments at all, let me know, please review!


	5. Clever cousins,,,

**A/N**: Hello :) Here's chapter 5 for you, hopefully you'll enjoy it! (and just for the record - the full title of the chapter is 'Clever cousins and confidential conversations'; clearly, that was too long to fit in the title box...)

* * *

Two days later, we're completely stuck. We haven't found out anything new, nor have we been able to get my diary back. It's also been at least two days since I've been bothered by those boys, which is quite worrying as well. They're up to something, I just don't know what. I'm getting more and more paranoid every day, and it doesn't help that I can't shake off the feeling that someone's watching me.

Deciding that it's no use trying to eat some more lunch, I glance towards the Ravenclaw table. My least favourite group of people is sitting prominently in the middle, and Lorcan is sitting somewhere at the side of their group, looking as if he's part of the group and not part of the group at the same time. Now, if _he_ were watching me, I wouldn't mind. But he's not. He's reading; a true Ravenclaw.

I sigh, pushing away my plate and getting up. I don't feel like staying here any longer. As I walk back towards the common room to pick up some books I'll need for class, my thoughts drift back to a few nights ago.

#*#

"_Thanks for that," I say as we all walk through the corridors side by side. "For this, I mean."_

_Lorcan just smiles vaguely at me before looking back at the floor. "That's alright."_

"_Why are they even doing this?" Lily starts. "Why did they steal Rose's diary and _why_ are they being such jerks?" She sounds rather angry and I flinch. It's not Lorcan's fault; I know it isn't. But Lily doesn't know that he doesn't want to have anything to do with it._

"_I have no idea," he answers softly, but I can hear that he's getting annoyed. "I prefer to stay out of stuff like this."_

"_Good for you," Lily mutters. "But can't you do anything about them? Can't you just tell them to suck it up and give Rose her diary back already?"_

_He glances at me for a second and answers, "It's not as if they listen to me, you know." I'm glad that he didn't say that I deserve to have my diary taken away from me, or something similar to that. _

_Lily raises an eyebrow at him. "Well, then just man up, Scamander! _Make_ them listen to you!" _

"_Lily!" I protest. I know she's raging mad at her brother right now, but that's no reason to take it all out on Lorcan._

_He just eyes her coldly. "And why, _Potter_, should I do that?"_

_I flinch at the tone he uses, and Lily looks taken aback too. I don't think either of us thought that he was capable of talking in such a tone. Before we can say anything else, Lorcan stops walking. _

"_We're here," he announces stiffly, and he turns to walk away._

_I open my mouth to say something – anything. Like "sorry for Lily's behaviour" or "thanks for walking us here", but no words come out. I just stand there, gaping like a fish at his retreating back. There have only been a few times during the past two years that I've been able to speak to Lorcan like a normal human being does, and obviously, this is not one of them._

"_Rose!" Lily calls, sounding rather irritable now. "Are you coming or what?" _

_The portrait of the Fat Lady is already wide open and Lily is standing in the entrance to the common room. Hastily, I follow her. She doesn't say anything anymore and both of us head to bed immediately. It's been a long evening. _

#*#

In class, it's hard to pay attention. I'm not usually like this and that's annoying. I should take notes, though, because there aren't many people who are taking Muggle Studies at NEWT level in the first place, and the only other Gryffindor here is, _of course_, Al dearest. And he will never let me copy his notes.

I glance over my shoulder, and conclude that it's more likely that he'll be coming to me for my notes (yeah, as if he's going to get them!). He's fast asleep, with his head on his desk. That must be uncomfortable. Running her fingers through his hair (alright, I was wrong before. There are _two_ other Gryffindors in this room at the moment) is Erin Vane. Her head is supported by her other hand and she's looking bored. How fascinating.

Now that I think about it, that _is_ actually quite fascinating. She used to be completely obsessed with Al and everything he did, and now, apparently, she isn't anymore. Of course, I could've guessed earlier on that she was bored with my cousin. That must be why I, while on patrols, regularly come across her and one of the wide variety of boys that's apparently at her feet, in some deserted classroom or a broom cupboard (lovely girl, that Erin). And now that I'm thinking about _that_, I wonder if Lorcan has ever caught her. If he has, he's proving to be a wonderful friend to Al. And since I can't bear thinking about _that_, I focus back on the Professor, who's trying to make us understand the wonderful Muggle world.

#*#

A couple of hours later, I'm back in the library. All this homework is pretty horrible, no matter what mum says. It's so much, and when you're almost done, there's a new load of 'fun' on its way.

"Have you found anything yet, Scorpius?" I suddenly hear from behind a bookshelf. Something tells me that they don't have the Map with them now. I should actually sprint back to the common room now to confiscate the thing, but I'm much too curious about what's going on here. I lay down my quill, even though I'm in the middle of what's probably the most essential paragraph of my essay on the advantages of Muggle iPods to our radios. I leave my books open, to at least _look_ as if I'm working, and I sit up straight in my chair, pricking up my ears.

"No, nothing," comes the muffled voice of one Scorpius Malfoy, git extraordinaire. "You'd think that _one_ of these books would contain a spell to make a diary readable, but they don't." I hear a dull thud, and conclude that Malfoy (or maybe one of his friends) must have thrown the book on top of some other books.

"How are we ever going to be able to open that diary?" Ah, Lysander; and of course, he's whining. "We've tried _everything_!"

"Well, everything…" That's Al, and he's probably raising one of his eyebrows (or both) at his pals right now.

"Almost everything!" Malfoy protests, and Lysander is, most likely, nodding furiously. "We've tried to just open it, we've tried to open it with a key – " Oh, so naïve, these boys. Thinking I'll just let them read my diary like that. Didn't think so, boys.

"We've threatened it, for Merlin's sake!" Lysander almost shouts, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one in the library who heard that. But honestly, they threatened my diary? It's a lifeless object. Duh. Lifeless objects don't do a lot. They usually don't listen to threats, or whatever you tell them. And why is that, Lysander? Right, because they can't even hear. They don't have ears! Well, generally, they don't.

"We've frozen it, we've heated it, we've drenched it in cold _and_ hot water, we've played Quidditch with it – " Wait, what? Are those idiots _crazy_? Well, I suppose they are, since they're idiots, but still. It's a diary! It's made of paper! You can't just do all those things with it! It has feelings – oh, wait, I just sort of argued that it doesn't, right? Forget about this rant, then.

"And we've tried countless spells already!" Lysander finishes his and Malfoy's list of crazy stuff. "But nothing works! And I can't find anything in this book either!"

"Uh, Lysander?" Al starts, and he sounds strangely amused. "You _do_ realise that the book's upside down, right?" There's a muttered reply I can't hear and they go back to, most likely, reading through book after book for their search for spells to open a diary. Hopefully they won't figure out anytime soon that the spell I used can't be found in one of those books because I went through lots of trouble to invent one myself.

I continue working on my essay until I'm interrupted by a person dropping an unstable pile of books on the table I'm working on. My face snaps up and, oh joy, it's my favourite cousin again.

"What?" I snap, and Albus apparently takes this as an invitation to sit down. Honestly, I would've thought that Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny taught him more about human beings and their interactions.

"See these books, Rose?" he asks quietly. "We've been looking through them all, just to find the one, measly spell that'll allow us to open your diary. And, to be completely honest with you, we're sick of it. So, I'll repeat the deal for you. Tell us how to open the diary and be spared, or don't tell us. But we will find out, I can promise you that much, Rose. And when we do, we will be _terribly_ annoyed, irritated and frustrated. You know what'll happen then." As a matter of fact, I don't, but I get the idea.

"Forget it, Al," I tell him, trying to adopt a tone that's just as icy as the one he used. "I know a better deal. You tell me who's carrying my diary around and give it back, and I won't tell anyone what happened. Make me get it back by myself, and it'll be all over the school that you and your mates tried to read a diary without the owner's permission."

Al smirks now. That can't be good. "Well, Rose, you know I can't just give you back your diary. What would be the fun in that? But – " He pretends to think for a moment (he's not really thinking, because when he's thinking, his brow furrows. That's not the case now), and continues. "I think I can tell you who has the diary at the moment." He can? That's great! Although I do wonder why he's so keen on telling me that all of a sudden. "I don't have it, so don't bother jumping me again. But, by all means, do have fun jumping Lorcan. I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

I gape. _What?_ I didn't see that coming, and judging from Al's wide smirk, he expected that already. "R-Really?" I stutter. "Why? I thought he didn't want anything to do with this?"

If possible, Al's smirk grows even wider. "Oh, Rosie, but Lorcan doesn't _know_ that he has it. You're right, he doesn't want anything to do with this. But we were sure – alright, I was sure – that of all the people in this school, Lorcan would be the last person you would ever physically assault." I can't help it; my face flushes quicker than a loo does, and I blink at my stupid genius of a cousin.

"Really?" I ask again. "You really think that?" I try to laugh, but no sound comes out of my throat.

"I said, Rosie, that I'm _sure_. And yes, I am sure. I feel bad for Lorcan, though. Surely he must be able to attract – how did you put it? – more _decent_ girls than you."

My jaw clenches, as do my fists. "I suggest you leave, Albus Severus Potter," I spat. "Trust me, your presence is not wanted here. Get lost."

"Aw, did I hit a sore spot?" he taunts, but gets up anyway. He takes the books and leaves, whistling to himself.

Great. So now Al knows about my stupid infatuation with one of his best mates, and he's surely going to tell him, unless I beg him not to, in exchange for which he'll want to know how to open my diary. This is a bad situation. A very, very bad situation.

On a second thought, _how_ does he even know? It's not as if I'm openly staring at him during meals… except sometimes, of course. And it's not as if I stumble over my words and flush whenever he's near. Okay, who am I fooling? Not myself, and _certainly_ not Al. But still, how did he figure it out? I haven't talked about it to anyone (not even Lily or one of my (other) friends) and he's not even there most of the time I see Lorcan. Who else knows? I'm driving myself crazy now and it's not good.

I decide to dump my books in my dorm and then go for a walk outside. That sounds good.

#*#

I was right; the fresh air is doing me much good. I'm glad I know myself well enough for this. I'm currently sitting in the stands by the Quidditch field and it's very peaceful here. For now, at least. I'm actually lucky that none of the House teams is practising; the weather's good enough for it.

It's odd, when you think about it. When we started Hogwarts, Al and I were best friends. Then you had Lorcan and Lysander, of course, and although we all got along brilliantly, our little group was still divided in two, if only just a little. At Hogwarts, I started hanging out more and more with my dorm mates and Al – well, he didn't. After only one class, he hit it off wonderfully with the Scamanders' dorm mate Scorpius Malfoy.

I, being the good girl who always listens to what her daddy tells her (back then, at least), did not want to have anything to do with him. Al didn't understand that at all. I still don't get along with Malfoy, but that no longer has anything to do with family names and stuff like that. No, he corrupted Al into pranking me continuously. By the time the Christmas holidays came around in our first year, we hardly talked anymore without shouting and yelling. Dad still doesn't like Malfoy either, for exactly that reason. Now, Al and I mostly ignore each other, which is a lot better than all those pranks.

It's quite a pity too. Al and I knew each other just as well as the Scamander twins know one another, and we're not even twins. Neither of us has changed very much over these past few years, so we still know, sometimes, what the other is thinking or what our next move will be. We know each other's expressions and gestures and habits. In situations like this, I cannot decide whether that's a good or a bad thing.

And apparently, falling out with Al meant falling out with Lorcan and Lysander as well. Maybe Malfoy corrupted them too. I've never been as cross with them as I've been with Al, though. They simply did what was expected from them back then, nothing more, nothing less. We're still friendly – not Lysander at the moment, of course. Perhaps that's how my crush on his brother started. We know one another, but we're not that close anymore. He's nice and smart and sweet and – let's stop before I become too embarrassing for myself to handle.

My peace and quiet is, as is usual these days, disturbed by someone shouting at me from below. "Hey, Rose!"

I lean over the railing and for a change, I don't see any of my cousins there. It's not Hugo either, no. It's Natasha, one of my previously mentioned dorm mates. If it wasn't for her and our other dorm mate Francis, I would've strangled Erin Vane a very long time ago. Probably upon first meeting her, now that I think about it.

"Hey Natasha!" I greet her back. "What brings you here?"

"Just felt like going for a walk," she says, shrugging, and I'm pretty certain that that's not the whole reason. "What about you?"

"Me too," I have to admit. She climbs up the steps towards where I am and sits down next to me. She looks rather depressed.

"What's wrong?" I ask, concerned by now.

"Oh, nothing," she says, sighing unhappily. "All this NEWT stuff is just too much for me to handle at the moment." She continues staring at the pitch, and I stare along. Having inherited my mum's brains (when it comes to school stuff, that is), school has never really been a problem for me. I'll pass, generally. In cases like this, when my diary is stolen away from me, that's a good thing. I can do my homework quickly enough and then continue hunting down those insufferable boys. But it also makes me pretty ignorant towards other people's struggles with homework and everything.

"You'll be fine," I tell her in the end, smiling faintly. "I know you will."

"He's only ever looking at _her_!" Natasha suddenly exclaims, and I'm taken off guard. Who's only ever looking at whom? Did I miss something she said?

"What?" I ask her, and Natasha looks up, slightly embarrassed.

"Did I say that out loud?" she asks, her face reddening as she speaks. "Forget I said that, okay?"

But I, being as curious as I am, and, of course, being in a similar situation myself (except for the fact that I haven't caught Lorcan looking at any girl, ever), can't just forget that. "You can tell me," I say, patting her back, silently hoping that she won't ask what's bothering me. She doesn't appear to even think about that at the moment, fortunately.

"Mark," she just says, and she sniffs. I blink. The only Mark I know is a fellow Gryffindor in our year so I suppose it must be him. I've never paid him too much attention, but obviously, Natasha has.

"What's he doing, then?" I ask as she doesn't make an attempt to continue.

She shakes her head for a moment, and sighs again. "He can't stop looking at – at _her_," she says, as if she's tasting something really foul.

"'Her'?" I ask. I have a weird feeling in my stomach that I already know who this girl is.

"I'm going to kill her," Natasha says, as if she didn't hear my question. "You're free to help, Rose. I know how much you've wanted this since first year. Perhaps Francis will help, too."

Now it's my turn to sigh, and I give Natasha a hug, for as far that that's possible from the side.

"I just don't see what's so appealing to her!" she now wails. "Why do all the boys seem to only want _her_?"

A sudden, frightening thought overcomes me. What if Lorcan hasn't told Al about Erin's escapades if he's one of the… you know. I don't even want to think about it. It makes me sick.

"She's a slag, she's easy," I say, perhaps a little louder than I intended.

"But – she's dating your cousin," Natasha says. "You'd think he'd have some standards for girls, right?" I snort.

"I hate to tell you this, Natasha, but Al has no standards whatsoever," I inform her. "He's dating a girl who's cheating on him with a different boy every week. That should say enough about his standards, don't you think?"

Natasha stares at me, wide-eyed. "She's _cheating_ on him? Shouldn't we _tell_ him?"

"He wouldn't believe me if I told him," I mutter, and it's true. Not now, at least. "Besides, his friends can tell him." _For as far as they're not helping her cheat on him._ "And then he might break up with her, which would give her the chance to literally do every boy in school."

Natasha seems to consider this for a moment. "Alright," she says in the end, "we won't tell him."

We sit in silence for about ten more minutes, during which I try to keep myself from thinking about Lorcan and Al's girlfriend (who must not be named). I'm not even sure of this. So I try to make a list of boys I've found her with so far. Mark is not one of them.

When I tell Natasha this, she smiles sadly. "Well, thanks, I guess," she says. "But who knows, perhaps you didn't have to patrol that night or you just didn't find them. Or maybe right now – "

"She may be unbearable," I try to reason with her, "but she's not a complete idiot." Yes, she is an idiot, just not completely. "She knows that there's a very big chance of getting caught if she does – those things during the day." By Al, for example. I've recently realised that he uses the Map a lot. Apparently, he doesn't do so after curfew.

"I don't see why she doesn't just break up with him, though," Natasha says, playing with a strand of her hair. "It would make it much easier for her. She could be a slag out in the open."

"He's a Potter," I say, as if that's the explanation. Which it is.

Natasha sighs again. "Let's go back inside," she says. "After all, it is almost curfew. And we wouldn't want to get caught."

"Or catch something – or someone," I mutter, and Natasha grins.

"You mean _someones_? I'd rather be caught myself," she says, and I'm not sure if I even disagree with that.

#*#

"Rose!" As soon as we enter the common room, Lily storms over. "You really _have_ to hear this!" She starts dragging me off, and Natasha waves, grinning, probably thinking how glad she is not to have younger cousins. Now that I think about it, I don't even know whether or not she has younger cousins. Or any cousins at all.

"What's wrong, Lily?" I ask as we sit down in a corner of the room, with nobody around whatsoever.

"I overheard something about an hour ago," she tells me, and though she sounds excited, she looks a little grim. "Well, I can't really call it 'overheard', because they were talking about it while I was there, and they knew it."

"Who were talking about what?" I inquire. My first guess? Al, _of course_.

"The boys in my year," Lily replies. Clearly, I was wrong. But the boys in Lily's year? That also means – "Hugo especially," she continues. "He was bragging, at least it sounded like that, about how his cousin – Al, of course, I have no doubt about that – _paid_ him to follow his sister – well, that's you, of course – around to find out what she – alright, you – was doing at all times, and where you were, and if you were talking about your diary to someone, perhaps telling someone – me, for instance – how to open it."

I can only stare at her. "He did WHAT?" I yell, and look around the room. Hugo isn't there, for which he should consider himself lucky. I would've killed him on the spot. "He's been following me on Al's orders? He's been telling Al my every move?" I'm positively fuming by now. "He is going down," I decide, and Lily nods, grinning.

"Exactly what I was thinking," she informs me, and I don't think I have to find someone who will help me get revenge on my traitor of a brother.

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? :D If you have any comments at all, let me know, please review!


	6. Fidgety Frogs

**A/N**: Hello :) So, here's chapter 6 for you :) Hopefully you'll enjoy it!

* * *

For the following days, I do exactly what I always do. Nothing too conspicuous, because the boys might think that we're up to something. Which, of course, we are. As much as Grandma Weasley dislikes it, we Weasleys are _always_ up to something. I only have to attempt not to worry about my diary too much.

Lily decided that, if Hugo stalks me, she would start stalking Hugo. Up until now, this has led to the following conclusions:

1. Hugo still picks his nose.

2. He likes to throw whatever comes out of his nose at my back, at least during his stalking sessions. Fortunately, he always misses.

3. He carries a notebook with him to write down odd things I do.

4. Those odd things apparently include going to the bathroom, talking to my dorm mates, doing homework (though I _do _suppose that Hugo and Al _might_ find this odd), and eating toast with bacon.

5. Hugo can't draw to save his life.

6. He's also not very sneaky when it comes to stalking. Of course, I didn't notice him before, but now that I know, it's hard _not_ to notice him.

All in all, this leads to one final conclusion: Hugo has no life whatsoever.

#*#

Of course, this was only a way for us to pass our time before we could prank Hugo for his involvement in this. We already wrote our Uncle George a few days ago and today, we're expecting a package. To not make it seem _too_ obvious, he should be addressing it to Lily. So far, we haven't seen anything yet.

I look around; Al is tucked away safely at the Ravenclaw table, and Hugo is surrounded by his friends. In walks my dearest friend Erin, looking as if she's had a rough night (if you get what I mean). Walking in after her is some seventh year from Ravenclaw, who, (not so) surprisingly, looks like he's had an equally rough night. Both head towards the Ravenclaw table and I can't believe that Al, who notices them coming too, doesn't put two and two together. Idiot.

"I'm going to go outside," Lily suddenly says. "I have Herbology right after breakfast so I might as well get out to the grounds already."

"Um, alright," I reply. Lily never wants to be early for class. Of course, it's always nice to exchange some family news with Neville, but Lily usually doesn't do that.

"Meet me in my dorm at the beginning of the lunch break," she whispers loudly before heading off. _Oh. That's what she's playing at_. Since Lily will be the one getting the owl, nobody will even notice the owl if Lily is not in the Great Hall.

Francis and Natasha are nowhere to be seen, but they don't have class next, so they'll probably come running into the Great Hall five minutes before breakfast ends. I have Potions now, and for some reason, it's not a popular class in our year. I'm the only Gryffindor taking it (since Al takes after his dad when it comes to Potions and the others couldn't care less about the class), there's also one Hufflepuff, two Slytherins, and two Ravenclaws. Huge class, don't you think? No really, I think the popularity of Potions class has hit an all time low in our year.

Our Professor is almost late, as usual, and looks around the class disapprovingly. I can understand why: the Slytherins are sitting in the furthest corner of the classroom, the Hufflepuff and one of the Ravenclaws, two good friends, are sitting together in the other corner, and I'm sitting almost in front of the Professor (don't judge me!). The other Ravenclaw… well, he's not here yet.

Professor Bell (the younger brother of one of my dad's old team mates – I'm sure you know the story) straightens his back as the door bursts open. "That's five points from Ravenclaw for being late, Mr Scamander. Now take a seat next to Miss Weasley here – you'll be brewing a potion in pairs this session." Excuse me? I mean – _excuse me?_ How am I supposed to brew a potion – as I'm sure you already guessed, the Scamander mentioned here is not Lysander. And judging from the fact that he's still standing in the middle of the classroom, not moving at all, I doubt _he's_ very happy with the arrangement.

"Mr Scamander, I suggest you sit down if you don't want any more points to be taken away from Ravenclaw." Sounds harsh? Yes, for some reason unbeknownst to me, the Professor doesn't really like either of the Scamander twins.

I try to focus (which doesn't go well, seeing as _Lorcan_ is sitting right next to me!) as the Professor goes on and on about the potion we'll be brewing today – something about human to animal transformation. Personally, I'm just happy that it's not Amortentia or something like it, because that would've been positively horrifying and awkward in this situation.

Each group is handed a specific, mysterious ingredient we're supposed to add to the potion at some point; this ingredient will determine what animal one of the group will transform into. Just spiffing. The Professor points his wand at the chalk board in the front of the classroom and the other ingredients appear on there.

Before I can say something, Lorcan is already gathering them at the cabinet, leaving me to find the correct page in our book. Awesome, this looks complicated. Oh, the luck I have.

Lorcan returns and unceremoniously dumps the ingredients at our desk. I stare at them for a moment before asking, "And what do we do now?"

He looks at me as if I'm crazy (which I am, in case you hadn't noticed), and replies, "We brew the potion, of course." I can almost slap myself. I really need to be more specific when I speak.

"Yes, I did get _that_ far, thank you very much," I say, slightly offended, before realising who I'm talking to. "I mean, sorry about Lily the other night. I mean – " Wow, talk about random. But at least I apologised now, right?

He looks surprised, to say the least. "Oh – uh… right. That's okay. It was not your fault." I swear, I'm almost beaming here. "It was late and… well, she's a Potter."

I raise an eyebrow at him. 'She's a Potter'? What's that supposed to mean? Is Lorcan secretly backstabbing his friend, or what? Was it an insult? Or just an observation? I guess he's right about all three Potter kids being rather blunt and potentially rude, but it's still a strange comment, seeing as Lysander didn't want to insult our family less than a week ago. Of course, Al is not around to inspect what Lorcan is doing now, so that might play a part too.

"Forget I said that," he mumbles, and turns to the ingredients. "Let's get started, alright? Uh – why don't you cut these – " He throws some unidentifiable things my way, "while I take care of these and then we'll see about the rest later."

"Sure," I say, and we start. The other two groups are chatting happily while cutting and crushing, but we work in silence. It's not as if I would know what to say anyway, so I guess this is for the best.

We don't talk at all, actually, except for the short moments when we need to figure out what to do next. When we're almost done, Lorcan speaks up again.

"I'm sorry too, about the other night. I shouldn't have become angry so easily." He doesn't look up as he speaks, which I understand since he's slicing some root very precisely. I would hate it if he'd cut his finger.

"That's alright. Like you said, it was late. And I guess Lily went a little too far there." He smiles vaguely, and even though he's still looking down, I manage to catch it. It makes me smile too.

When we finish the potion (fortunately, we didn't forget, like the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw girls, to put in the extra ingredient), we stand there awkwardly for a moment.

"So," Lorcan says at last, "who's going to drink it?" I flush, knowing that, if he were to ask me to drink this, I would gladly do so.

"Um – " I start, eloquent as always. "Is there an antidote ready?"

"Of course there is, Miss Weasley," Professor Bell says from behind me, causing me to jump. I almost trip over the cauldron, but I manage to stay upright nonetheless. "You're done, I see. Well, what are you waiting for?"

I glance at Lorcan, who looks a bit uncertain. I wasn't sure what to think either, because we've never been told to just take a potion of which the Professor isn't one hundred percent sure it won't hurt us in any way.

I cough, and say, "Sure, I'll – "

"I didn't mean you, Miss Weasley," the Professor interrupts me, "I meant Mr Scamander." Oh. That explains it. He probably couldn't care less if something would happen to Lorcan. I do, of course, so I watch nervously as he puts some of the potion into a bottle and then proceeds to drink it. If something goes wrong, how will I ever be able to live with myself?

Lorcan turns green, and my first thought is that the potion must taste horrible. Then, he starts shrinking and changing shape. Oh dear Merlin, please tell me this is a joke. If only I were a princess now, this situation would be funny, but now it's just plain weird. I'm just relieved that he didn't change into a spider (what if I would've drunk it, then? I would've changed into a spider! Dad would kill me, literally! (well, he'd make mum kill me, but still)).

"Perfect, Miss Weasley. That's another perfect grade for you – and your partner, of course." Professor Bell looks down at Lorcan in distaste, and then he walks away.

"Wait, Professor!" I shout, looking from him to Lorcan on the floor and back. "Aren't you going to change him back? You said you had an antidote ready!"

He looks at me rather stoically. "I indeed said that, Miss Weasley, but I never promised to change the drinker of the potion back. The antidote is simply there in case you didn't prepare your potions correctly. But you did, and your partner should be normal again soon. There's no need to despair."

No need to despair? _Hello?_ I think my fellow classmates are thinking the same thing, for they seem a lot less willing to drink the potion all of a sudden – if they were even willing to do so in the first place. And how long will 'soon' take?

I sigh and look down at Lorcan again, who's staring at me with his now big, bulging eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, hoping that when I open them, he'll be normal again. He isn't. I just hope that I won't have to kiss him in order to change him back. That is not how I imagined our first kiss.

Not knowing why I should stay here any longer, I crouch down next to Lorcan and hold out my hand. He croaks and hops onto it. We stare at each other for a moment, and for once, this is not followed by me turning away, blushing. This is an unbelievable situation. I sigh again and, with Lorcan-the-frog still in my hand, I walk out of the classroom, both our bags in my other hand.

#*#

My next class is one big blur. I can't concentrate, simply because Lorcan is sitting on my desk – in frog form, yes, but he's there nonetheless. That, and I'm thinking about what I'm going to tell his friends, my mortal enemies, if he doesn't change back anytime soon.

Finally, it's time for lunch, and I head towards the Great Hall. I wonder whether they serve food a frog can eat? One can always hope.

"Rose! Wait up!" It's Natasha and Francis, and they obviously want to talk to me about something. I hope they won't start about Mark and Erin and Al and whoever else is involved, because I'm sure Lorcan won't want to hear about _that_.

"What's up with the frog?" Francis asks, looking at my hand as if she's seeing something completely disgusting. Alright, frogs aren't my favourite animals in the world, but this frog in particular is not disgusting. Not at all.

"You've been carrying it around all day," Natasha adds. "Why?"

By now, we've arrived in the Great Hall, where we walk towards the Gryffindor table. Lorcan croaks at this, but I have no idea what he wants to say. He'd rather sit at the Ravenclaw table, I reckon, but that's not going to happen.

I put him down at the table, and tell him, "We're going to sit here, so find yourself something to eat. I have no idea what frogs normally eat."

He stares at me as if he wants to say, 'Neither do I', but it's not as if I can help that.

Then I turn to my friends again. "He's not a frog." They're both staring at me as if I'm crazy (after all, I _did_ just talk to a frog). "Potions… accident."

The two Slytherins who have Potions with us walk in, both fully human, and after a quick look around, I notice both other girls are intact as well. I turn to Lorcan again. He hasn't moved yet. "It seems as if Bell really has something against you, the others are fine."

He croaks at me, probably saying something along the lines of, 'You're not helping at all.'

My favourite trio enters the Hall now, looking around. As if sensing their proximity, Lorcan starts croaking with all his might. Natasha and Francis share a look. "We've – got to go, Rose, sorry. Just remembered that we've got a book to return to the library, you know. We'll catch you later."

They're gone before I get the chance to reply, and when I look down again, I realise that Lorcan has fled as well. He's approaching the Ravenclaw table rather quickly and I (try to) sprint after him, but too late. His friends have already seen him and they're eyeing him oddly.

"Can't you just stay where I put you?" I cry in exasperation once I've reached them as well. If he'd been human now, I wouldn't have used such a tone. I probably wouldn't even be here, but still. "What were you thinking, someone could've stepped on you!"

"Rose?" Al asks. "Since when do you have a frog?"

"_He's not a frog!_" I shout, but to no avail. Malfoy snickers.

"Do you really think that sending your frog our way is going to make us return your diary to you?" I pale, suddenly realising something. Would my diary still be in Lorcan's bag? I turn to run back towards the Gryffindor table, but Al casts a swift leg-locker curse.

"Where are you going, Rosie?" he asks, sounding amused, and slightly curious. I glare at him.

"Let me go," I say, but he won't budge (gee, surprise).

"Whoa!" Malfoy suddenly shouts, and both Al and I look towards him. Apparently, the potion's effects really lasted only a couple of hours.

"Lorcan?" Al asks, completely shocked. "Rose, what on earth did you do to him?"

I splutter, but Lorcan beats me to answering the question. "She didn't do anything. It was Bell."

His twin pulls a face, and the other two roll their eyes. "Great," Malfoy says. "Why was she carrying you around, then?"

"She was just trying to help!" Lorcan says, and I smile to myself. Or that's what I thought. Al is smirking at me knowingly. I glare some more.

"Let me go, Al, honestly!" I cry out. I am, after all, still lying on the floor with my legs locked together. Not pleasant at all, I'll tell you that.

Al sighs and mutters the counter spell, and I stand up quickly, dusting myself off. As his friends start discussing ways to get back at Bell for this (after Lorcan retrieved his bag from the Gryffindor table… shame), Al smirks again. "No luck today, Rosie." He glances at Lorcan. "No luck at all. You should've just kissed him, though. At least as a frog, he wouldn't be able to protest as much." I redden, and I swear there's steam coming out of my ears. Before I can retort, though, Malfoy interrupts.

"Hey, Al, we need your help with this!" With one last smirk, Al turns to help his friends. I pick up my bag, snatch a sandwich from the Gryffindor table, and start walking towards the common room. I don't want to stay in the Great Hall any longer. When I'm almost there, I bump into Lily.

"Rose!" she exclaims. "There you are! Where were you? I told you – "

"To meet you in the dorm. Right, Lily, I'm sorry. I forgot. Potions was… disturbing. Sorry." Lily nods at this.

"Come on, let's get started, before lunch is completely over."

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? :) Was it good, bad, somewhere in between? If you have any comments/questions whatsoever, don't hesitate to review!


	7. Prefect patrols, pranking and planning

**A/N**: I'm so sorry for taking so long to update! I have absolutely no excuse :( Hopefully this chapter will be to your liking anyway :)

* * *

"What did he send us?" I ask, curious, as we enter Lily's dorm. We asked uncle George to send us something new, something revolutionary – something Hugo hasn't seen yet.

"Take a look yourself," Lily replies, and points towards her bed. There lies nothing but a simple stuffed animal.

"_This_?" I ask, not believing my eyes. "_This_ is what he sent us? _This_ is supposed to give us our revenge on Hugo?"

"That's what I thought too," Lily says, "but this note came with it. Perhaps it's not such a bad plan."

I quickly scan over the note. Apparently, this stuffed animal changes shapes when someone's holding on to it. It doesn't just change into other animals, but in fire, water, and smoke, among other things, as well. I'm still a little sceptical. First, why would Hugo pick up a stuffed animal? He's fourteen and he thinks he's very grown up already (I beg to differ). Second, I still don't see how this should shock him.

"How do you think this is a good idea?" I ask Lily after reading the note another time, to see if, perhaps, I missed a part.

"Imagine what Hugo would do if smoke would fill his room," she says. "He wouldn't know what hit him!"

"Hit him?" I repeat. "Can't we turn this into something that keeps blowing up in his face?"

Now it's Lily's turn to look sceptical. "Wouldn't that be a little dangerous?"

I shrug. "No, not really. And besides, if it is, why would we care?"

"We're his family?" Lily asks rhetorically, and I have to think about my next comeback.

"He's _our_ family too, and so is Al. But do they care? No." Perhaps not what I was looking for, but it'll do.

Lily rolls her eyes, and I ignore that gesture. "I suppose we could try it," she says after a while. "But how were you planning on doing that? Someone else might pick it up."

I look at the animal pensively. "I'm sure we'll figure something out. So, we need a spell that makes it blow up, but recover itself afterwards. And we need one that makes sure it'll only blow itself up when Hugo's holding it." I think for a moment. "Or Al, of course. Right?"

"Right," Lily replies with a nod. "Or Malfoy, or Scamander."

I don't know if she's still mad at Lorcan, so I have no idea _which_ Scamander she means. Other than that, I completely agree.

Glancing at my watch, I realise that we should be on our way to class soon. After that, I'll go to the library to find us some spells, and after dinner, there's a Prefect meeting and maybe patrols. I don't know for sure, since apparently, some people complained about their patrol partners, so they might switch us around a bit. Hopefully Hugo won't be in bed yet when I get back from that. I can't wait to get my revenge.

*o*

The rest of the day flies by (fortunately; it might have to do with Lorcan not constantly sitting on my desk anymore), and before I know it, it's time to leave my spot in the library to head to the Great Hall for dinner. I've been mildly successful; I did find spells, but I'm not sure whether or not they're the right ones. It can't hurt (me, at least) to try, so I'm going to perform those spells on the stuffed animal as soon as I get back from the meeting or patrols. I do hope Lily will leave the thing alone in the meantime.

She's not at dinner, which is odd. Al and his buddies are there (Lorcan still looks a little green, but maybe his food is just rotting?), but where oh where is Lily? As I look around, I notice that Hugo quickly looks the other way. Is he honestly spying on me while I'm having dinner?

"So, Rose, where's your frog?" I look up to find Francis and Natasha staring at me apprehensively.

I smile uneasily. "It's gone," I reply, and they seem to think it is safe to be around me now, for they sit down opposite me.

"Where did it even come from?" Natasha asks curiously.

"Potions accident," I tell them, just like I told them this afternoon. "You're better off not knowing."

They exchange glances and sit closer to me. "No, do tell," Francis says in a conspiring tone.

I sigh and try to tell them the story as quickly as possible. At the end, both of them are giggling like madwomen. "What's so funny?" I ask, confused.

"Lorcan Scamander, turned into a _frog_?" Natasha asks in between giggles. "That is really funny."

Francis looks over her shoulder at the Ravenclaw table. "He still looks green," she comments, and Natasha starts giggling again. "No, really, Rose, if I were you, I would've locked him up somewhere. I mean, you hate him, don't you?"

I immediately flush. "Well – I wouldn't want to say that, personally," I stammer.

Francis scrutinises me closely and smiles. "Okay, then. But you _do_ hate his friends, at any rate. Seems good enough for me."

"Yeah, sure, I hate them," I say, not looking Francis in the eye.

"Oh, Rose," Natasha says, looking over her shoulder too. When I look along, I notice Al staring our way, as if wondering what we're up to. "At least he's the best looking out of them all."

I groan; this is torture. I'm perfectly happy just yearning after him in silence, and the last thing I need is friends who keep pushing me to tell him or whatever.

"Calm down, Rose," Natasha adds, "we won't tell him. Or his friends." I mutter under my breath, and she asks, "What was that, Rose?"

"Al already knows," I say, inwardly cursing my arse of a cousin.

"Oh," Francis comments, and she and Natasha exchange an urgent glance. "That sucks. We should find a way to keep him quiet, then."

"Or you tell him before your cousin gets the chance," Natasha suggests.

"No, thank you," I mutter. "I'll manage. I won't tell him. Just keep it quiet, please."

"Of course," Natasha tells me, and Francis smiles.

"Rose!" All three of us look towards the doors and see Lily storming in. "That thing is pure evil, I tell you!"

"Then why did you touch it, Lily?" I ask. "The note explained it all."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she responds, helping herself to some dinner. "I won't touch it again. You can do the honours later."

Natasha and Francis look at us with almost identical puzzled expressions on their faces. "I don't think we want to know," Francis says, grinning. "Well, it's been a pleasure catching up with you, Rose, but we'd best be off again. Rumour has it Moaning Myrtle has been throwing a scene again. We'll fill you in later."

And then they stare at me strangely when I talk to a frog that's actually a human being?

*o*

"Alright, that's about it," Mira Harris, the Head Girl, says, rolling up her scroll of parchment, filled with announcements. Nothing too interesting, though. "Now only one topic remains, and that's patrol partners. We've had some complaints from… certain people that their patrol partners aren't very pleasant to work with. I won't go into detail, but we've decided to assign you all new partners."

I glance at Richard Patcher, my fellow Gryffindor sixth year Prefect, and I hope that he wasn't one of the people who complained about their partners. We hardly ever walk our rounds together, and I've never had a problem with him, but you'll never know. Al could've put him up to it, even though Al isn't particularly close to his dorm mates.

Mira, in the meantime, has continued talking as if I wasn't slacking off. "So since we have no idea which combinations would be good and which deadly, you're now free to pick your partner."

Oh. Well, that's unexpected. Obviously, the other Prefects think so too. Picking our own patrol partners? Unheard of!

"Hey, Rose?" Oh deary me. I freeze again, but eventually manage to look to my left. He is so adorable and cute as he stands there, uncertain whether or not he's doing the right thing but doing it anyway, rubbing his neck with his hand and sending me a sweet, dimpled grin. I think I just melted. "Want to be patrol partners?"

Okay, so as it appears, I'm still here, so I didn't melt. But I might just catch on fire in mere seconds. I'll be eagerly awaiting my patrols from now on. Of course, I need to answer first, because Lorcan is starting to look a bit put out.

"S-Sure," I manage to stammer. "Of course! That would be great." I smile at him, and he seems to relax now.

"Awesome," he says, grinning, sitting down in the vacant seat next to me. Upon realising what he said though (I suppose), his cheeks go red and he avoids my gaze.

The other Prefects have, by now, settled for a new (or old) patrol partner as well. "Okay then," Wes Everton, the Head Boy, says, looking around the room. "That's settled, then. We'll quickly make some new schedules and then you're excused."

To add to my never ending luck, we get to patrol tonight. If I would've known this, I would've taken a double shower before coming here and I would've put a little more thought in what I'm wearing. Of course, looks aren't _supposed_ to be important, but they are. Lorcan might be an exception, but I can't just count on that without knowing it for sure.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, my mouth manages to form a correct sentence all by itself. Correct as in grammatically correct, and it's a sense making and coherent sentence. Correct as in appropriate and, could it be, attractive? Not so much.

"Why did you want to be patrol partners anyway? To spy on me for your friends?" Someone, please hex me. Curse me. Or shoot me with one of those Muggle things. Anything, but get me away from here!

Lorcan stops walking and stares at me. He doesn't say anything, he just stares. Well, until I avert my eyes out of embarrassment, at least. "Sorry," I mutter, "I shouldn't have said that. Sorry. Just ignore me, alright?"

"That's pretty hard," he replies, and walks on. Not knowing what to think of _that_ statement, I follow him. This also has to do with the fact that we're supposed to patrol the hallways together now, of course. Not that Richard and I ever cared about that – we always split up.

"Oh come on!" I finally say (or (almost) yell), unable to catch up with him unless I would start running now. "I said I'm sorry! I know you want nothing to do with this! My mouth is just stupid."

He stops walking and turns around. Even from this distance, I can see the confusion in his eyes and the smile he's trying to suppress. I take this as an opportunity to catch up with him. When I've reached him, he obviously can't contain his smile any longer and I smile back uncertainly.

"Your mouth is stupid?" he asks, amused. His eyes flicker from my eyes to my mouth for a split second.

Before he can say anything else, I correct myself. "I'm stupid. Yeah, I get it." I roll my eyes for some extra dramatic effect. I walk on, now forcing him to catch up with me.

"Well, I can't deny that you say, and maybe do, some stupid things at times," he says, suddenly appearing at my right. "But you're not stupid." I just nod slowly and smile, not knowing what to say to that. "And I figured that it would be fun, doing rounds with you. Since we've known each other for almost our entire lives, you know? That's much better than patrolling with a prim and proper girl who only cares for homework."

I try to stifle a laugh at this; it's a well-known fact throughout the school that the Ravenclaw girls in our year are especially studious and humourless. Not at all like their male counterparts.

"Okay then," I say once I manage to contain my laughter. "So I'm not prim and proper?"

He laughs and looks at me critically, as if judging me. Under different circumstances, I would start to feel uncomfortable now. Now, the mood is light and we're only having a bit of fun, so I just laugh back at him. "No, I don't think you are. You're… proper, I suppose, but not in a stuck-up way. Thank Merlin."

Feeling happy that he likes that I'm not that well-mannered all the time, I smile as we continue walking rather aimlessly through the hallways. If patrols will be like this all the time, they'll become my favourite part of the week. I might sign us up for patrols every evening. Although – I think that Lorcan might not appreciate that an awful lot.

Suddenly, I feel happier and more courageous than I have in ages, and I nudge him playfully. "So, tell me, what's it like to be a frog?" I ask, grinning widely.

He groans and hits his hand against his head. "Do I really have to talk about that?" I nod eagerly. "It was weird. Everything and everyone was so big. And loud. Moving as a frog was pretty awkward and it took me a while to figure it out." Now I roll my eyes.

"And when you did, it ended in disaster," I say, and he smiles a little.

"Disaster? I wouldn't want to call it that. Although – you did end up on the floor, didn't you? Why was that? Anyway, I could hardly see anything and I couldn't tell anyone anything. I could only croak."

"Everyone stared at you as if you were – never mind. And your friends seemed to be plotting your demise under the soles of their shoes."

"They always do," he says merrily, and it is pretty obvious that he's only joking.

"Why does Bell hate you so much, by the way?" I ask, remembering why he was even forced to live as a frog for a couple of hours in the first place.

He thinks for a moment before answering. "Lysander pulled a prank on him once, in second year. I think he never truly found out which one of us did it, so he just hates us both." He shakes his head, more to himself than to me. "It was a harmless prank, really. I think Lysander put some itching powder in his robes or something along those lines."

"Seriously?" I ask. Aren't Professors supposed to be mature people? I don't believe mature people should hold grudges like this, punishing someone for what their twin did years ago. Maybe holding grudges is just something Potions Professors do. Perhaps it's in the job description.

Lorcan just nods and we walk on, passing empty classrooms, broom cupboards and dark passageways as we go. As we hear muffled sounds in one of the classrooms, we both stand stock-still. We exchange a glance and slowly make our way over to the room.

After one peek, I pull a face already and back away, Lorcan following suit. He seems to be fighting an internal battle and I can't blame him. After a minute, he roughly grabs my arm and drags me away from the scene forcefully. I'm shocked by his reaction, and by the fact that his hand is now around my arm. Yes, even when I'm being dragged away, I still have my fan girl moments. Why do you care?

We stop only when we're two floors and three corridors away from what we've just witnessed. He stares at me, wide-eyed. I wonder if this was the first time he saw something like that.

All of a sudden, his expression changes to a thoughtful one. "I think it would be better if this would stay between the two of us," he tells me, and I nod. I've never told anyone about what I witness during patrols. Since Richard and I usually split up, he was never there. True, he might've come across… things by himself, but I don't know anything about that. And I don't think I want to know.

"I agree," I say, and we fall silent. After a while, I ask, "Do you think Al knows? Or at least has his suspicions?"

He just shrugs, trying to look impassive but struggling to do so. "I have no idea. We don't normally talk about Erin, actually." Seeing the confused look on my face, he adds, "Al never talks about her to us, and we never ask him. I don't know why. That's just the way it is."

I've known for a while that those four are one weird group of friends, but they've just reached a whole new level of oddness. I thought boys liked to boast about their girlfriends to their friends, and that those friends liked bothering them about those girlfriends. Since there is no way Al likes Erin for her personality (it's just that horrible), I always figured that he liked prancing around with her because of her looks. What's so appealing to tons of make-up, short skirts, a fake tan, and a cheating nature isn't very clear to me, but to boys, it's obviously appealing.

"But tell me, what _were_ you doing on the floor this afternoon?" he asks, smirking slightly.

Now it's my turn to groan. "Al hexed me."

"What did you do now?" he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Nothing," I reply, crossing my arms defiantly. "Well, I suddenly remembered that you bag was still at the Gryffindor table and…" I trail off and stare at my feet. They're moving at the same time as Lorcan's feet, but I have to take longer steps to keep up with him since he's taller than me.

"And?" he asks, looking confused.

"And Al mentioned that they put my diary in your bag a couple of days ago. I wanted to see if that was still the case." I feel like I've been caught doing something I'm not supposed to, which I suppose I kind of am. I guess going through his bag wasn't my best plan, and I didn't even manage to go through with it.

"They did?" He sounds surprised. "Why?"

"Because that would be safest since – you didn't want anything to do with this whole situation so I wouldn't expect them to give it to you." Well, that is true. Sort of.

"Then why did Al tell you?" That's a good one. Damn it.

"He didn't think – I'd be crazy enough to assault you in order to go through your bag." That's only partly true as well. But he doesn't need to know that. I might as well Avada Kedavra myself if he finds out Al's real reason.

Lorcan just chuckles though. "I'm glad to hear that. Al looked like he was in pain after you jumped him." I can't help but grin at that. Hurting Al, though it isn't my life goal, is definitely something I enjoy doing. "But then I'll turn my bag inside out when I get back after patrol." He checks his watch. "Looks like we're nearly done. I'll walk you back to the Gryffindor tower, we're almost there anyway." Oh, this makes me very happy. And very giddy. "It is a good tactic, I have to give them that," he says thoughtfully. "But that doesn't mean I'm very happy about it. I've told them loud and clear that I want to stay out of this, multiple times."

I nod eagerly. "Thanks for that. Three diary stealers is more than enough for me to deal with. Do you know why they did it, though?"

He coughs loudly, and it sounds as if he's choking. Before I can ask him what's wrong, he says, "No, I have no idea. Sorry."

This is strange. I'm almost inclined to think he is lying. As we approach the Gryffindor common room, he seems to let out a breath of relief. Great.

"So, this has been fun," he tells me, obviously trying to lighten the mood again. "We should do it again soon."

I roll my eyes and grin. "Well duh, we've got another patrol next week."

"Oh, right," he says. "I almost forgot." I'm not sure if I should take this as something positive or negative. "Thanks for not leaving me in the dungeons with Bell, by the way," he adds, and I smile, very aware of the fact that I'm blushing again.

"That's okay," I say. "It was the least I could do."

He smiles back and lightly touches my arm. "Good night, Rose. I'll see you around, yes?"

"Of course," I reply, "good night, Lorcan."

He smiles one last time and leaves. I stare after him and try to wave as nonchalantly as I can when he looks back once more before turning around the corner and I enter the common room in a light daze.

I'm nearly knocked over by Lily, though, who comes charging at me as if I've been gone for days, or weeks, instead of hours. "Come on, Rose!" she urges me. She drags me up the stairs (somehow, when Lorcan drags me along, it feels much nicer. I don't know.) and into her dorm. "I've managed to keep Hugo from going to bed by claiming that he wouldn't be able to stay awake until eleven. That should make him stay in the common room for a short while. I expected you to be back sooner, what happened? No, you know, don't tell me, we've got work to do. You cast those spells and then we'll get it to Hugo."

I stare at her and blink. When Lily rants, you have to listen very closely to follow what she's saying. "Okay," I say, and pointing my wand at the stuffed animal (now a brightly coloured lion; where does uncle George get those ideas?) and mutter a few spells. There; that should do the trick.

I pick up the animal and hand it to Lily, who doesn't seem happy to be touching it again. When she notices it doesn't do anything, she holds onto it like a normal (non-suspecting) person would.

"Why are you even so keen on getting revenge at Al?" I ask suddenly. Of course, I'm getting Hugo back for turning against me, but Lily isn't supporting her brother either.

"He's an arse," she answers simply, and I can't not agree. "He always gets me in trouble with mum and dad, posing as their picture perfect middle child. He tells them I'm crazy and insane. I don't know how much they believe of his stories, but it would be very nice to be looked at like a normal person instead of some loony idiot."

"Oh," is all I can say. I didn't know Al could be _that_ stupid at home, but obviously, he can.

"Yes," Lily says. "Let's go."

We descend the stairs again and scan the room for my annoying little brother. As luck would have it, he's in a corner, playing chess with Al. Instinctively, we duck, hoping they didn't see us.

From behind a chair, Lily levitates the multi-coloured lion and sends it towards Hugo. Al, however, notices it first. We see him stare at the thing and look around; there aren't that many people left in the common room. Let's just hope he doesn't have the Map with him.

Then he says something and Hugo looks up too, seeming a bit peeved (I reckon he was concentrating on the game; too bad for him). He laughs at the thing, but walks towards it. Curiously, he picks it up, turning towards Al again. He's probably making fun of first years and their stuffed animals right now.

All of a sudden, an explosion sounds. Hugo looks like a mad scientist (yes, I've seen cartoons of those. Mum's Muggleborn, remember?). He stares at the animal in disgust. Al, in the meantime, is dying from laughter, it seems. Before Hugo (or Al) has the opportunity to do something, the animal, having recovered itself, explodes again. By now, Hugo's eyebrows are singed and Al is lying on the floor, clutching his stomach.

Obviously not amused by that, Hugo throws the animal towards Al, and it explodes again. We here a triumphant "Ha!" coming from their corner and we grin. Mission accomplished. The other students in the common room have gathered around them now, and Al and Hugo keep throwing the stuffed animal each other's way. Revenge is sweet, even though this revenge isn't going to get me my diary back. When neither of them have any facial hair left whatsoever (and at some places, strands of their hair are missing on their head), Hugo throws the animal at a random student. Nothing happens. Al and Hugo exchange a look.

Both of them approach the random person and take animal again, together. Not a second passes and it explodes again. Too bad, boys. They probably thought that it was exhausted. No such luck, though.

Al scans the common room again. He's probably looking for us (or at least for me). He whispers something to Hugo and both of them run off towards their dorms. Lily and I take this as our cue to run up the stairs to the girls' dorms as well.

Landing on Lily's bed, we burst into fits of giggles. That was hilarious to watch.

"Right," Lily says when we've both calmed down. "And now? You still haven't got your diary back."

"I don't know," I say, sighing. For a moment, we both just sit there and think. Then I realise something. We don't have any further ideas, as horrible as it is. So there is only one way to get any further, although Lily might be opposed to it. It's time for some extreme measures. I look at Lily, dead serious. "What we need, is the help of an expert."

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? :) If you have any comments/questions/anything else to say about the chapter/story, let me know, please review!


	8. Lily, a letter and lacking luck

"An expert?" Lily starts, puzzled. "We've already – " Her mouth forms an 'o'. "Oh. Rose, you don't mean – "

"That's exactly who I'm talking about," I say, smiling a little by now. After all, Lily's reaction is pretty funny to watch.

"Do you think that's such a good idea?" she asks, and she doesn't sound very enthusiastic. "I mean, wouldn't he inform Al of what we're planning?"

"We could always threaten him," I offer. "And there has to be something Al did to him for which he could want revenge now, don't you think?"

Lily thinks for a minute. "Probably. I usually stay away as far as possible when they're at it again."

I clap my hands. "Perfect. So he _does_ have a reason to help us get revenge on Al. And, of course, we have lots of blackmail material. But let's not mention that immediately; if he refuses to help, we can always mention it later."

Lily, by now, looks pretty smug. "Okay," she agrees, smirking. "That sounds good enough for me. We'll do it tomorrow, alright? I'm rather tired now. Plus, we need to be wide awake tomorrow, if Hugo and Al decide to get back at us in some way."

I nod thoughtfully. "That's a good one. Sure, we'll write tomorrow. Good night, Lily."

**O**

The next morning, I decide to write the letter while eating breakfast. Not many people are here yet, so it's not too loud. Perfect.

When talking (or in this case writing) to James, an entirely different way of conversing is needed as opposed to talking to Al. To talk to Al, it suffices if you speak like, or are, a baboon. When talking to James, this won't work, because he doesn't speak baboon. No, you have to say (or write) exactly what you mean, because if you don't, he'll interpret it the wrong way (purposefully or by accident, that varies) and you will not be happy. Trust me. I've been there.

My quill hasn't touched the parchment yet as someone sits down opposite me, and I barely have the time to swallow before I notice who it is (and then, I'm glad that I _did_ swallow first). "Good morning, Rose," Lorcan greets me politely. "What are you doing?"

"Eating?" I reply hesitantly. As he continues staring at my other hand (the one that's not holding a sandwich), I add, almost shamefully, "And I'm writing. Good morning to you too."

"Right," he says, looking back at me. "Anyway, Rose, I just came over to inform you that we're going to have another patrol tonight – apparently, the schedule we got yesterday didn't work for a lot of people. We'll have our patrols on Tuesday from now on. We'll hear more if something else changes. Or so I hope." He blinks a few times, unsure whether or not we _will_ be getting an explanation at all.

"Oh," I speak up, after a pause, "of course. That's alright." I smile, and feel my heart speed up as he smiles back.

"Great," he says, and he stands up again. "Then I suppose I'll go have some breakfast too and leave you to your writing." With one last wave, he's off towards the Ravenclaw table, where, I notice, Lysander is already sitting.

Turning back to the parchment in front of me, I chew my quill for a few seconds before realising that my sandwich is in my other hand. Rolling my eyes at my own stupidity, I start writing.

_Jimmy boy!_

_How is life for you nowadays? Anyway, I need your help. And so does Lily. Kind of. See, your idiot of a brother has taken it upon himself to make my life miserable. I know what you're thinking – tell me something I don't know – but this time, it could also affect you. So it is of vital importance that you help me here. Al has stolen my diary. I know this doesn't sound like the most life-threatening situation, but it is, trust me. Which, I know, is not something you're used to, but do it anyway. Not just for me, but for you as well – because, as you may remember, I did catch you on many an adventure while you were at Hogwarts (and at home too, come to think of it). It's all in there. So help. Do you have any brilliant ideas how to bring down our dearest Albus Severus (and his two buddies, if you please)? Everything is welcomed, except murder. _

_With love,_

_Rose._

That should do the trick. At least, I hope it will.

**O**

Charms is a hassle. For some reason, Professor Jones decides to pair us up alphabetically. Which, of course, leaves me with Erin Vane. I did ask to be excused so I could go to the nearest bathroom to throw up, but the Professor didn't allow me to leave. So we are now sitting at our desks with equally disgusted looks on our faces.

Fortunately (for Erin, that is), we only have to practise the Placement Charm. Although, if it had been something more violent, I would've jumped at the opportunity to work with her.

She keeps muttering under het breath, even though we are supposed to practise in silence. "Could you just shut up?" I snap at her, quietly. "Nobody can focus, thanks to you." Truth be told, most people can focus well enough. It is just me who can't.

She sends me a foul look. "Wait till I tell Al about you," she hisses.

"Right, because I care so much about what my idiot of a cousin thinks." I roll my eyes; is she really that dumb?

"Well, you should," she hisses, "after all, he has your diary."

"He doesn't even know how to read it. Now shut up, Vane, I'm trying to work here." I try to ignore her, but she keeps nagging me. After a while, I've had enough. "Should I tell your precious _boyfriend_ about the numerous _other_ boys you sleep with, then?" I hiss at her, and her eyes narrow.

"You wouldn't, Weasley," she says in a low voice. Then, to my surprise, she laughs. "Of course, you would. Little goody two shoes, you are. You, of all people, should know, though, how _boring_ your cousin is." Alright – she's right, I know this. But that still doesn't give her the right. "He never wants to do anything." She laughs again. "You know, Weasley. They're not even numerous _other_ boys, if you get what I mean."

Oh, I _do_ get what she means. "So you're doing this with others because Al – you know, doesn't want to?" I'm shocked, to say the least.

She shrugs, a devilish smile at her lips. "I've always done this," she whispers, "even before we even talked about having sex. He could have seen it coming." My mouth moves, but no sounds come out. She's been cheating on him from the beginning of their relationship? "And in case you're wondering why I'm still with him – please, Weasley. He's a Potter. That should say enough."

"_Why_ are you telling me all this?" I ask, slightly nauseated. I'm glad I only had one sandwich this morning, or else I would've thrown up for sure. "I could just tell Al about this."

"Oh, come on, Rose," she replies, laughing. "He wouldn't believe you. Others might, but he would never believe you over me. Besides, you're not going to tell him. Or I might tell one of his friends something about you." I pale. Surely not – "Albus isn't very good in keeping secrets. As soon as he found out you fancy Lorcan, he told me." She smirks. "Honestly, I don't know why he doesn't just tell Lorcan. Just so you know, Weasley – nothing's holding _me_ back. And trust me – I will make sure he believes me, and I will make sure that you're never going to get him."

"Girls," Professor Jones suddenly calls, "get to work. You're not taking this class to chitchat, I hope."

Oh, I most certainly don't. Least of all with Erin, who looks a little _too_ smug. Perhaps we should prank her too. Or maybe she's not worth it. We'll see.

In the end, I manage to get the Placement Charm right. The only other person who manages this is Al, much to my chagrin. Erin's Placement Charm, however, is far from perfect, and now it's my turn to look smug. I feel like strutting out of the classroom when we're dismissed, but I decide against that quickly when Francis start waving at me, signalling me to wait for her and Natasha. That's a better idea than strutting out by myself.

"We need to talk," Francis hisses as they catch up with me. "About Natasha's – uh – situation. Tonight?"

"I've got patrols tonight, sorry," I say, and I truly am sorry. After all, I sort of promised Natasha that I would help her.

"After patrols, then?" Francis suggests, and I nod. That should be manageable.

"What did Erin want?" Natasha whispers in a conspiring tone.

"I'll tell you tonight," I promise. "But basically, we know stuff about each other that one should not want his or her enemy to know."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Francis asks, perhaps not fully understanding what I'm talking about. I'm not sure if Natasha told her about Erin being such a slag.

"It's probably a bad thing," I reply, and we've arrived at the Defence classroom. Fortunately, we're not separated here. It looks like we're up for a theoretical lesson today, so I take out my parchment, quill and inkbottle and listen to the conversation Natasha and Francis have about whether Erin Vane would look better in mud or in tar. I believe that in the end, they decide to cover her in both and then dump her in the Forest. I think I'm in on that plan.

**O**

The rest of the day flies by. Before I know it, I'm back to patrolling the hallways once more - with Lorcan of course. Apparently, we're supposed to patrol the three top floors tonight, which I don't mind. At least we won't have to climb an awful lot of stairs to get to our common rooms when we're done.

"So did you manage to finish that letter?" he asks conversationally.

"Letter?" I ask stupidly. "Oh, right, the letter. Yeah, it's been sent already. Wait – how did you even know it was a letter?" I eye him suspiciously, and his face becomes a little redder.

"Well, I just – I just thought that it had to be a letter, as you're not the type to do your homework at the breakfast table, an hour before class starts," he replies, and I admit, that makes me blush a little as well.

"Right, of course," I mutter. "You're right, I don't really do that." He sends me a dimpled grin, making me feel all giddy… again.

"Neither do I," he tells me, even though I already know this. "There's so much pressure, you'd better do it as soon as it's assigned."

I nod eagerly; those are my thoughts exactly. "I know," I say, "at least there's some time for relaxation later on. I don't know how all those people do that, putting everything off until the last minute."

He seems quite happy for some reason, and he says, "You know, if you want to, we could, maybe, study together some time, then? If you want to, of course."

I think I'm in heaven – sort of. If this were heaven, there would be no homework, no school, not stupid cousins – just him and me. But this is very close to heaven for me. "Sure," I respond, "that sounds great!" I'm positive that I'm smiling very widely now, but I can't get this grin off of my face. Let's hope it doesn't scare him off too much.

"By the way, I checked my bag last night," Lorcan says, "but there was no diary in it." My brain is working overtime now. Al can be _such_ a sneaky bastard. I should have known he was lying.

"He was probably just saying it to make sure I wouldn't jump him again," I say quietly. "I can't believe I fell for that."

Lorcan awkwardly pats my arm. "It's alright, Rose. Who knows, maybe it was there but now they found a better hiding place for it." A hiding place? My eyes, I'm sure, grow twice as large as they usually are.

"Come on!" I almost shout. Without thinking, I grab his arm and march straight to the Room of Requirement.

"Rose," Lorcan starts hesitantly, "I don't think they've hidden your diary here."

"It can't hurt to look, can it?" I say defiantly, and walk up and down the entrance three times, before a door appears. Not waiting for Lorcan, I walk in; he probably doesn't want to come anyway.

Inside, there are loads of objects, varying from armours and statues to notes, clothes and products from Uncle George's shop. I mutter an incantation that should alert me if my diary is here, but nothing happens. Apparently, it really isn't here. I do pick up a random crumpled up note – I don't understand how people just use this room as some sort of dustbin – and pocket it. Always nice to read it later and have a good laugh. Or not, who knows.

"You were right," I tell Lorcan as I step out of the Room again, "it wasn't there. Let's go."

Almost immediately, we have another run-in with my best friend forever, Erin Vane. Well – we run into her and what appears to be a member of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. She doesn't notice us. Well, perhaps she does, but she doesn't look up or anything.

After we, once again, fled to the other end of the seventh floor, I turn to Lorcan. "Do you really think Albus doesn't notice? I mean, when is she ever with him in the evenings?"

"When is he ever with her in the evenings?" Lorcan asks me in return, and I have to think that over. He's right; Al is nearly always with his friends between dinner and curfew (and after that, too). It's almost as if he knows all about Erin's escapades and gives her permission to continue.

"That's not my point," I say stubbornly, and Lorcan smiles a little.

"You know, Rose, no matter what the two of you say, and no matter how much you fight – I am certain that you still love each other, deep down."

I scoff. "Of course not. I just – hate Erin more than I hate Al."

He shrugs. "Sure, if you say so."

I throw my hands in the air in desperation. "Yes, I say so! I mean – sorry. So you think that since Al never hangs out with her after dinner, he sort of has himself to thank for his girlfriend's cheating?"

"No, of course not!" Lorcan sounds rather affronted by this. "I just think that that's why he has no idea of this situation."

"Don't you think it's weird, though?" I ask, on a roll now. "How many people know about this 'situation', as you call it? We do, all those blokes who snog or shag her do… and nobody tells Al." Not to mention Natasha, and perhaps Francis, who know as well.

"I don't think it's that weird, actually," Lorcan replies, and he sounds a little nervous. Oh no he didn't…

"Why not? You're one of his best friends; isn't it your duty, almost, to tell Al that his girlfriend is cheating on him?"

"You're his cousin, isn't that _your_ duty?" he says, suddenly sounding grumpy.

"We've already established that I hate Al. You, on the other hand – "

"You're still family, Rose! Family is supposed to stick together, to stick up for each other when one of them is wronged. Even if you don't agree with that person, with what they do, and even if you don't always see eye to eye. That's what family does, Rose!"

I stare in shock as Lorcan finishes his rant. I had no idea that he was even capable of ranting like that. What's even more upsetting, that rant was directed at me. He's mad at _me_. It surprises me that he's still here, breathing heavily and still looking quite angry. On the other hand, that allows me to turn around and to storm away. I ignore his calls – he probably just wants to yell some more anyway – and soon, I arrive at a girls' bathroom. I slip in and sit down at the floor, head in my hands.

I can't even cry – a voice in my head asks why I would even want to cry over a bloke; they're not worth it, not at all – because I'm just that upset. I thought that he actually might, I don't know, like me. We had such a great time yesterday! Now, it's all gone. All because of that stupid Erin Vane. I am almost sure now that she must've had Lorcan with her, some time in some or other classroom. Now he doesn't want to tell on her because she might say that he was more than willing himself and… I can't even think about it. I feel so stupid.

I actually liked him. I thought he was nice, smart, handsome, funny – everything a girl could possibly dream of. But now… if that's the kind of girl he's attracted to, I don't know what to think of that. I wouldn't mind if it was any other girl, but that cheating, cold-hearted bitch? One of his best friends' girlfriend? Oh no, definitely not. It's not the same anymore. I feel used, miserable, and heart-broken.

Erin, of course, knew that this would happen. She is so dead. I decide to get up from this dirty floor, shake off my misery, and go back to the Gryffindor Tower. Perhaps I can help Natasha and Francis complete their revenge plan on Erin. I'm definitely in now.

**O**

I run into the common room, completely out of breath. It took me a while, but I got here. Why it took me so long? Well, I accidentally ran into Lorcan and he kept trying to talk to me. If he had done this last week, or yesterday, or even an hour ago, I would've loved it. At the moment, I just don't want to see him or talk to him, so I ran as quickly as I could. Fortunately, he didn't manage to corner me.

So I arrive in my dorm, panting, and Natasha and Francis look at me oddly. "What happened to you?" Natasha asks.

"I had to run," I manage to choke out. "Later."

As I collapse on my bed, they exchange a worried glance. "Rose?" Francis asks tentatively. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I reply, "everything's fine. Can we please ruin Erin? Please?"

"Yep, she's fine," Natasha says, and I manage a small grin. "And yes, we can. What did you have in mind?"

Still gasping for breath, I gesture towards Francis, who grins evilly. "Oh, I know something," she says slowly. "How about we partly transform her into a duck?"

Both Natasha and I stare at her sceptically. "How?" Natasha asks.

"Why?" I want to know.

"Why? It's funny, come on!" Francis says, and I have to admit – it _is_ funny. "How? Well, I'm sure there are ways to transform her into a duck – a potion, a spell, whatever you want!"

"She'll know it was us, though," Natasha says, "or at least, she'll think it was us. Or just Rose."

"And then she wants revenge," I say. "And she knows exactly how to get her revenge."

"Lorcan," they chime simultaneously, and I nod sadly.

"Talking about him, how did the patrols go?" Natasha asks. "Did something happen? You're back so early."

I tell them everything – well, not everything; our discussion about neither of us telling Al about Erin, his outburst, and my earlier suspicion.

"Do you really think that he would do such a thing?" Francis asks quietly. "He doesn't seem like the type to betray his friend like that."

I shrug. "Who knows how persistent Erin can be when it comes to boys," I say, thinking about what she said earlier today. I tell them that as well.

"That's not good," Francis mutters, and Natasha shakes her head. "But still, I'm not sure if Lorcan would do that. Sure, he might think she looks nice – for whatever reason – but he would still be loyal to his friend and not go along with her plans." I can only hope she's right.

"So," I say, trying to change the subject… kind of, "and what about Mark?"

Natasha blushes, and Francis grins knowingly. "No progress," Natasha sighs sadly. "He keeps staring openly at Erin. I think she knows, and I suspect she likes it."

"She likes messing with people's feelings and tearing apart groups of friends," I say. "Not that Mark and Al really are friends, but they get along, I suppose."

Francis nods. "We need a plan to divert his attention from Erin Vane and make him see that Natasha is much better for him."

"I don't think that's ever going to happen," Natasha mutters. "She has him hooked, and she never lets anything or anyone go once they've fallen into her clutches."

We have to agree with this; that's Erin for you. "Still, it has to be possible, right? Without, of course, turning Natasha in a complete slag herself," I say, thinking aloud.

"Please, no!" Natasha cries dramatically. "Anything but that!"

Francis grins. "Of course we won't do that, Tash. All we need to do now is come up with another plan that can result in the same thing."

We sit (or lay) in silence for a while. "I've got it!" I suddenly yell happily. "We just have to find out what Mark thinks about you. Right? And once we've done that – uh – we can come up with a second phase."

"I'll do that," Francis volunteers. "I'll try to come up with a second phase." Both she and Natasha look my way now.

"What?" I ask defensively.

"Can you find out how Mark feels about Natasha, then?" Francis asks. "And what he likes in a girl, perhaps? Except, of course, slaggish tendencies; we already know that."

I sigh. "I guess I have no choice, right?" Even though my love life isn't looking too good at the moment (especially after tonight – right now, I don't want a love life at all), I can always help Natasha with hers.

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? Let me know, please review! :D


	9. James' jokes and joyous jitters

**A/N**: I seem to be doing this a lot lately, but I apologise for taking so long to update! Hopefully the chapter was worth the wait :)

* * *

Soon, almost a week has passed and there's no reply from James yet. I haven't had any rounds anymore, so Lorcan hasn't talked to me either. Potions would have been an opportunity for that, but we had to brew the potion ourselves, not in pairs, and Lorcan didn't voluntarily sit next to me. Secretly, I'm rather grateful for that, because I don't know if I could look him in the eye, after that talk. Why did he have to help his best friend's girlfriend cheat on said best friend? _Why?_

I've also reached the conclusion that he might have been right about the family thing. I feel horrible for Al that his girlfriend is cheating on him, but I know that I can't tell him. He wouldn't believe me, his girlfriend would tell Lorcan about my crush, and Natasha doesn't want him to know either, because of the Mark situation. Besides, I doubt that Al would tell me if he found out that my boyfriend (though I don't have one, so that's easy) was cheating on me.

I don't see Mark around either, so I can't interrogate him. Natasha would kill me if she found out that I actually considered doing that before deciding that it would be better to just spy on him and his friends some time.

All in all, even after a week, I'm still pretty down. I'm just thankful that Hugo and Albus didn't prank us back. Maybe they decided to cut us some slack, but knowing them, something is coming up. I can hardly wait.

As I sit down for breakfast one morning, an owl comes flying towards me. James' owl. Why he didn't just use the school owl with which I sent my letter is beyond me, but I'm glad that my cousin finally wrote back. I unfold the letter and read it.

_Rosie, my dearest brilliant cousin!_

_It surprises me that you chose to consult me about this absolutely horrific matter, for you, if I remember correctly, ought to have more brains than me. I agree with you that my brother should be taken down – how about engaging him in a wrestling match? Just kidding, Rosie. Al has no idea what he's playing at; you must get that diary back. I would suggest to burn it when you have it back though, but that's just my humble opinion. He cannot find out about all my misdeeds, if he hasn't already. _

_You know as well as I do, Rosie, that the Imperius curse is forbidden, so that's out of bounds. You could tie them down, force them to drink a potion and then get your diary back. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, there is no potion that makes the victim (even though we are the actual victims in this situation) do whatever you want them to do. Feel free to correct me. But Rosie, brilliant cousin of mine, have you considered feeding them a truth serum? That should be no problem for a Potions wiz kid like you. _

_I'll continue thinking about how to deal with my brother, don't worry. In the meantime, good luck!_

_Love,_

_James S._

I shake my head at the letter. What did he drink before writing this? Then again, you can never know what goes through James' head. He's the only one in the family who still has faith in my brilliance – everyone else has given up already. Sure, I'm somewhere at the top of my class, but outside the classroom I'm pretty oblivious to everything. Burning my diary is actually a good idea (I should definitely take that in consideration), and so is Veritaserum. I'm fairly sure it must be in some Potions book, and if it isn't, perhaps Professor Bell will have a bottle left.

It also appears that James is going through another stage of not wanting to be known solely as a Potter. He goes through one about every two years, and they last for a couple of months. He always signs letters like this, then, with no 'Potter', or even a 'P' in sight.

"Letter from James?" I look up; I didn't even notice Lily sitting down opposite me. She nods at the letter and sends me a curious look.

"Yeah," I reply. "Here, take a look."

Like I did as well, Lily shakes her head at the letter while reading it. "Typically James," she says when she finishes. "But what do you think?"

"I think it's a rather good idea," I reply. "A truth serum… at least we'll know where my diary is, then."

"Don't you think it's a little… obvious?" Lily asks. "I mean, anyone could think of that."

"Then why didn't _we_?" I ask, and Lily pulls a face. "I think we should give it a try. If it goes wrong, _we_ won't be the ones to get hurt anyway."

"I know," Lily says, "I just don't know if James is trustworthy enough. How do we know he's not going to tell Al about this?"

"Lily, did you read the letter?" I ask her. "He wanted me to wrestle with Al to get my diary back. James is the only one who ever gets to wrestle with Al. They don't wrestle with anyone but each other. James has to be completely serious if he wants me to wrestle with Al!"

"Well, he was only joking," Lily says, trying to floor my argument.

"The letter seems pretty serious, though," I say thoughtfully. "He seems genuine. And I suppose that, if he decides to tell Al on us, we'll find out soon enough and come up with something else."

"Okay," Lily replies. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure," I tell her. "We'll start tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Some time soon, at any rate. We can check out the library tonight before patrols?"

"Deal," Lily says. "And then I'll take care of the ingredients. You can do the brewing of the potion – I think you're better at that than me. After all, I've inherited dad's Potions skills."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Class isn't very special – there's Charms, again, but we can choose our partners ourselves today. I end up with Miranda Davies again, who writes down everything the Professor says. There's also Defence, and apart from the part where Natasha 'accidentally' gives Erin a pig tail, that is pretty dull as well.

At lunch, we're still laughing about that incident. Erin looked ready to cry, Al looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or to tell Natasha off (in the end, he didn't do anything, as usual), and Mark looked absolutely shocked when Natasha did that. The rest of the class just burst out laughing.

"I can't believe you did that!" I tell Natasha, who grins.

"Me neither," she admits, "but I was so sick of it all of a sudden. It just felt like the right thing to do."

"And it was!" Francis almost shouts, while tears from laughter are streaming down her face again. "Did you see her? And now she had to go to the Hospital Wing to have the tail removed – that's maybe even the best part."

I can't help myself and glance at the Ravenclaw table. It's not hard to find the three boys I'm looking for, since they're prominently in the middle of the table. I almost can't believe it, but Lorcan looks almost amused. I'm sure they heard, by now, what happened during Defence, so his amused face surprises me. The other two look less happy, though.

Suddenly, Lorcan looks up and catches my eye. I quickly look down. It's bad enough that I have to face him again, tonight – let's not make it any worse by being caught eyeing him and giving him a reason to pester me tonight. That's not like him, but by now, I wouldn't put anything past him.

After lunch, there's Arithmancy (which, of course, involves a _certain_ Ravenclaw; fortunately, he doesn't even attempt to converse with me), and I leave the classroom as soon as we're dismissed. I really need to find a book on Veritaserum.

"Rose! Wait up!" I stop, although I keep wondering whether I should just continue on my merry way. In the end, Lorcan reaches me before I can make up my mind.

"Hello, Lorcan," I greet him politely, with a smile as fake as Erin's tan. His own (real) smile fades quickly after this.

Staring past me at a wall (must be very interesting, I presume), he says in a monotonous voice, "We have patrols tonight, remember?"

"I remember," I say, trying to adapt to an equally monotone voice, but failing. I'm a little insulted that he thought that I forgot. No matter how much I try to make him look bad, though, it still makes me a little (alright, a lot) uneasy that he's standing so close.

"Good," he says, and he stares back at me again. He truly has beautiful eyes, and they now hold a mixture of many emotions, all of which I can't describe, but I know that they're there. I suppose my eyes hold lots of emotions as well, now. He swallows, and almost murmurs, "I'll see you tonight, then."

I nod curtly. "I'll see you tonight." As he just stays there, I turn to leave, but he grabs my arm and gives me a sad look.

"Please don't tell me you're going to be like this tonight as well," he almost begs, and my heart flutters; does that mean he's not angry, then?

"If we can talk tonight," I say, careful not to lose control over my voice as well.

"Of course we can," he answers quickly, and he continues staring at me intently. "Rose?"

"Yes?" I breathe. This is almost perfect, too good to be true. And it is.

"You've… got an ink stain on your nose," he says. He sounds amused as well as apologetic, and I have no idea what to make of that.

"Oh," I mutter, embarrassed. "Where?" I wipe my nose with my sleeve, and he chuckles.

"Here." He wipes the other side of my nose with his sleeve (yes, _his_ sleeve!), and in the process, his fingers touch my face too. I blush and I would've looked down, if his fingers wouldn't still be at my face.

"Right," I stammer, "thanks."

He smiles again and says, "I should go now, I promised my brother I would help him with his Charms essay." I nod, in a slight daze, and watch as Lorcan walks towards, I assume, the library. The library? Wasn't I going there too?

Before I have the chance to run after him or yell at him to wait, I'm distracted by other voices heading my way. My eyes widen as I recognise Mark's voice – this is my chance!

Cursing the fact that Al confiscated the Invisibility Cloak some time ago, and the fact that I haven't _quite_ mastered the Disillusionment Charm yet, I crouch down behind an armour.

As the three of the four Gryffindor boys in my year (the last one being, of course, Al) walk past, I try to shrink even more and I peek out from behind the suit of armour to see them leaning against a pillar, still talking.

"You're kidding, right?" Richard, my fellow Prefect and former patrol partner, asks, wide-eyed.

"No, I'm not kidding," Mark says with a huge grin on his face. "She really told me that."

"Isn't she still dating Al?" Will, their final dorm mate, asks sceptically. "Or did we miss a big break up?"

Mark looks around and beckons his friends to stand a little closer. I can still hear him loud and clear, though. "No, they're still together. But, apparently, Albus is… well, not what she thought he was."

"So she just invites others to 'come with her' at night?" Will asks. "Wow, that's… bad."

"For how long has she done this?" Richard asks, a little confused.

"Since the two of them got together," Mark says, barely repressing a snort. "He's that bad, it seems."

"And at night, you say? That's odd, I've never noticed," Richard says, trailing off.

"Really?" Mark asks. "What do you do during your patrols?"

"I walk around," Richard says, and I roll my eyes. He's _so_ irresponsible.

"Okay then," Mark says, rubbing his hands. "So what do you think I should do?" He looks at his two friends. "And don't just tell me not to sneak out at night, Rich, that's not going to happen."

"Would you do that to Al?" Will asks, and Mark thinks for a moment.

"We don't know him that well," he says, as if that'll do. "And he doesn't need to know…"

"So you'll just help her cheat on her boyfriend, who happens to be your dorm mate?" Richard inquires, and I notice Mark becoming a little uneasy now.

"Well – " he starts. "If you put it that way…"

"If you had a girlfriend and you would find out she cheated on you with Al, how would you feel about that?" Richard asks.

"Fine, fine," Mark grumbles. "You know how I feel about her. She's hot. But if you think I shouldn't do it – "

"Or tell her to break up with Albus first," Will says. Mark contemplates this for a moment.

"She's been with so many blokes – I doubt she would do that," he says in the end. "It's just – it's been ages since I've had a girl."

"Erin wouldn't be your girl anyway," Will points out, and Mark rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But still."

"What about Natasha, then?" Richard suddenly says, and Mark looks his way, frowning a little. "She's been giggling to no end around you lately."

"So she's been giggling around you, _too_," Mark says.

"She stares at you all the time, mate," Will backs up Richard, who continues.

"I definitely think you stand a chance with her."

They're quiet for a moment. "Perhaps," Mark then says, but he doesn't sound very enthusiastic. "I mean, come on. Erin! She's… wow. And Natasha… well, she's nice, I guess. She looks… alright, but to say she's hot? Not really."

I almost scowl as I realise once again how superficial boys my age can be. You'd think they'd be mature by now, but the opposite it true. Sixteen year old boys can be very frustrating.

The boys are muttering among themselves now, and Mark concludes with, "We'll see. Maybe I'll talk to Natasha some time, maybe not." Judging from his voice, I think I can safely say that he's still thinking about Erin and the opportunity she's giving him. Why does Natasha have to like such an arse?

They leave, and I crawl out from behind the armour. Luckily, they didn't see me there. I feel stiff by now, but I manage to make my way towards the library. Sitting down, I try to process what I've just head. So maybe Mark is going to talk to Natasha, but not because he likes her – because she likes him and therefore, he thinks she's easy. I really need to talk to her before he does. But first, I need to find a book in which Veritaserum is explained.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

An hour later, I've found something – it's even on the list of books one can read for extra information for NEWTs, so it won't attract too much attention, too.

Once I've seen Madam Pince about the book, I walk out of the library. On my way out, I bump into Lysander, who just comes walking in. "Rose," he says curtly, glowering ever so slightly.

"Lysander," I say. I look behind us, but don't see anyone. "Where's Lorcan?"

"Why do you care?" he says grumpily. "I have no idea."

"Wasn't he helping you with your essay?" I ask, surprised.

"No." He sounds almost offended. "I can do most of my essays without my brother's help, you know."

"Oh, that's not what I meant," I say quickly. "That's just what he said earlier."

"I haven't seen him since lunch," Lysander says in a normal voice, and he seems confused too. "Why would he say that he's helping me?" he asks, but I don't know the answer either. Or maybe I do, but I'm not going to tell Lysander that. After all, it's not as if we're best friends or anything. As long as neither of us mentions my diary, we can have a somewhat polite conversation, it seems.

"Oh well," I say, feigning happiness, "it's probably nothing. I should get going. Bye, Lysander."

"Bye, Rose," he says vaguely, but he stays where he is. I wonder if he's going to stay there until he has figured out what Lorcan would have to lie about.

I think I know the answer. Erin Vane. She's so dead.

* * *

**A/N**: Sooo... what do you think? Let me know, please review!


	10. Brothers and breakdowns

**A/N**: My apologies for another long wait. I'll try not to let it happen again, but you'll never know :S

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy the chapter, and please leave a review at the bottom! :)

* * *

Storming towards the Gryffindor tower, I fail to notice another student until I bump into him, causing us both to fall.

"Ouch, Rose, watch where you're going! This is the second time this month you make me fall on the floor!"

And of course, I am on top of him again. Good, otherwise I'm sure I would've been suffocated by his weight by now. "Right, Al, I'm sorry. This time. For the previous time, you're still not getting an apology." I'm about to leave as I think of something. "Say, Al… could you tell me where your girlfriend is at the moment?"

He gives me a calculating look. "Why do you want to know, Rose?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that, Al."

"Is it illegal?" he asks; oh, he knows me too well. Sadly.

"It might be. So, are you going to tell me where I can find your girlfriend or do I have to go find her myself? I'll end up much more frustrated if you make _me_ look for her and that might not end well for her."

Is it me, or does this piece of information fail to impress my cousin? Either he doesn't have much faith in my killing abilities, or he doesn't care that much about his girlfriend. I hope for him that it's the second option.

"Fine, I'll tell you," he eventually replies, sounding almost bored. Wow, that was easy! "She said she was going to the library, she had to finish some essay she didn't need my help with." He rolls his eyes, and I can't help myself; I feel a little sorry for him. She uses him because he's famous (well, his family is) and because he's smart. Smarter, at least, than she is.

"When did she say that?" I ask, curious. I don't remember seeing her in the library – good for her (and me).

"Couple of minutes ago," he tells me, shrugging. "Hey, you haven't seen Scorpius, have you?"

It keeps surprising me how casual our conversations can be sometimes, even when we're in the middle of a feud concerning, for example, my diary. But just like with Lysander, as long as nobody mentions why we were fighting, again, my talks with Al can be fairly pleasant. It's only when he actually is _nice_ that I become suspicious.

"No, I haven't seen him," I reply. "So you… saw Erin a couple of minutes ago?"

Al shrugs, and takes out the Map, probably to look for his best mate that way. "Yeah, we've been in the common room since class ended."

"Right," I say lamely. "Thanks, Al."

"Bye Rose," he replies, and he's gone. That was odd.

As I walk on towards the common room at a much slower pace, I think about what Al said. So Erin was with him for at least the past few hours? He probably wasn't lying about that; I mean, why would he? He'd be helping his girlfriend cheat on him if he did. But if he wasn't sneaking off with Erin, why did Lorcan lie to me? I decide to find him instead, but after dropping off the book in my dorm. Upon entering the common room, I walk into Hugo. This day really is full of surprises.

"Hey, Hugo," I say, smiling uncomfortably. We haven't really talked after the stalking affair and my revenge. "Have you seen Lorcan, by chance?"

"Have you seen my eyebrows, Rosie?" he asks, and I'm sure that if they were still there, he would've raised those same eyebrows right now.

"Couldn't they just re-grow them in the Hospital Wing?" I ask feebly. I already thought that they had to know that it was us (I mean, who else would do such a thing?), but this confirms it.

"No, they couldn't," my brother tells me, and I frown. I'm sure Al had all his facial hair back when I just saw him. As I tell Hugo this, he sighs. "Or maybe they could. I don't know, I didn't ask. Do you think I should have them re-grown? No, wait – I know, you probably don't. You wouldn't have made them burn off in the first place if you wouldn't like this better."

"You had it coming," I mutter, and he shrugs.

"Maybe I did." He thinks for a while, and says, "Yeah, I think I will go to the Hospital Wing. Oh, and Lorcan is over there." I blink. Why would he be in the Gryffindor common room? "He just helped me with some homework, and now he's Nargle hunting or whatever." Before I can say something, Hugo's gone.

Nargle hunting? I know that Luna sometimes does that, but I always thought that her sons had a little more common sense.

I walk up to him, and he looks up from where he's crouching, seeming startled. "R-Rose!" he stammers, standing up quickly and brushing his hair out of his (now tomato red – it kind of suits him, actually) face. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Yeah," I say, staring at him, "this _is_ my common room, after all." He flushes some more, and I ask, "What are you doing? Hugo said you're looking for Nargles."

"Huh?" he responds oh-so-eloquently. "Oh, yeah, I am. See, you've got one… here…" He trails off, and he leaves his hand, formerly moving towards my head, floating in the air for a moment before letting it fall down again.

"Why do you keep lying?" I ask, trying to sound at least a little hurt. A flash of something I can't quite explain washes over his face.

"Lying?" he almost squeaks. "What do you mean?"

I sit down at the couch, and he follows suit. "You told me earlier on that you were going to help your brother with some or other essay, and then – "

"I did?" he asks, looking genuinely surprised. "I meant _your_ brother, not mine. I just helped Hugo with his essay; he asked about that this morning."

"Oh, right," I say, and I glance down at my hands. It's a rather easy mistake to make – it's a matter of only one word. "But you were lying just now as well. You and your brother don't go Nargle hunting."

"Yes, we do," he tells me, but I'm not falling for that. "Alright, we don't. But trust me, it was nothing. I just – fell."

Not sure if I should believe _that_, I shrug. "Okay, then. Did it hurt?"

"What? Oh, no, it didn't hurt." He's beaming at me now, and I can't help but smile back, even though I know he's making this up on the spot. "I'm perfectly fine. But thanks." He looks around and asks, "What's the time, by the way?"

I check my watch. "Dinner time."

He nods and stands up from where he's sitting. "Let's go to dinner, then." Only as we walk out, I remember that I still have this large library book in my bag. Great. I have to remember to leave it in the dorm before I go on Prefect patrols later.

At dinner, I sit with Natasha and Francis; after all, we've got some business to discuss. First though, I quickly tell Lily that I found a book; she asks for it, so she can start collecting the ingredients.

"Hey, Rose," Francis greets me. "What's the matter?"

I look at Natasha pointedly and Francis gets it right away. Natasha herself, however, isn't even looking our way; her eyes are plastered at the back of Mark's neck. Richard and Will are sitting with him, and the three of them are whispering about something. Since Will keeps glancing at Natasha, I think I know what that conversation is about.

"Tash," Francis says quietly but urgently, shaking Natasha's arm.

"What?" she asks, looking at both of us as if she's never seen us before. "Sorry, I was distracted."

"That we saw," Francis smirks, and she gestures towards me. "Rose probably has something to tell us. Otherwise she wouldn't be sitting here nowadays."

"Hey!" I exclaim loudly. "That's not true." The other two don't react, so I continue before Natasha will be distracted again. "I overheard them," (I nod towards the three boys further down the table) "talking this afternoon." That catches their attention.

"Oh? You did? What did they say?" Natasha immediately wants to know. Francis just rolls her eyes at our friend's eagerness.

"Do you _want_ to know?" I ask. After all, it's not really the nicest account of a conversation. As she nods happily, I exchange a look with Francis (who doesn't seem to like my question at all), and I continue, "He was going on and on about how _hot_ Erin is." We all pretend to puke at this; we've been stuck with that girl for over five years, and everyone seems to love her. It's disgusting.

"And?" Francis asks impatiently. "Was that it?"

"He might talk to you some day, Natasha," I say, somewhat apologetically. "But probably just because he feels that he does have a chance with you."

"Not because he likes her," Francis concludes quietly, and Natasha is just staring down at her plate. I feel bad for her; she didn't ask to like that idiot. I shoot a glare Mark's way, and am surprised to find Will looking our way with a sad look on his face. What's up with him?

"That's great," Natasha says softly. "Absolutely great. So that means he probably doesn't want me, he just wants sex. Right?"

"Very likely," Francis answers; I don't even get the chance to find a nicer way to say it.

Natasha puts her face in her hands and groans. Francis pats her back and I try to peel the hands away from her face. "Natasha," I say softly. "Just do what you feel is right, okay?"

"But what _is_ right in this situation, Rose?" she almost cries out, attracting the attention of half the Gryffindor table, including Mark himself. He doesn't seem fazed by Natasha's desperation. Not that he _knows_ for sure what she's talking about, but he could have an idea, right?

"That's all up to you, Tash," Francis says, stroking her hair. "If you want to go along with what he says and does, because you like him, go ahead. If you don't want to, then don't. Don't let him pressure you into doing anything."

"But I don't know what I should do," Natasha whispers, and that's the moment that I've had enough. Of the stares our way, that is.

"Come on," I tell the two of them, "let's go outside. There won't be as many people trying to listen in there."

Francis nods firmly and almost drags Natasha out of the Great Hall. I glare at Mark once more, but he looks back at me innocently. I feel like strangling him then and there, but I get the feeling that Natasha wouldn't appreciate that.

"Natasha," I start as we arrive outside; it's not very warm, but it'll do. It's not as if we'll stay here for a very long time anyway. "What you need to do is think. Think long and hard. What do you want? Do you want Mark, who, well, is a total arse at the moment – "

Natasha looks ready to protest but Francis silences her quickly. "It's true," she says, and Natasha looks at her feet. Whatever she was planning to say, she couldn't deny that it was true.

"Or," I continue, "do you want a nice bloke who likes you for who you are, doesn't just want to have sex and comes to you because 'you're willing anyway', something Mark is not?"

"She wants both," Francis tells me, as always quick to react.

"I like your optimism, Rose," Natasha starts, "but boys like that just don't exist. Alright, maybe they do, but they're very rare. And what are the odds that one of them will like me? Who says I'll ever even meet him?"

"Of course there are boys like that," I try to soothe her, realising that I sound very optimistic indeed. Perhaps a little too optimistic; I mean, look at my love life. It's non-existing. "You just have to have a little faith," I add nevertheless.

"Rose is right," Francis tells Natasha, and that's good to hear. I was already doubting my own words. Still am, actually. "Someday you'll meet someone like that. Maybe not now, maybe not next year, but trust me – us, I mean; sorry Rose – you will find someone."

"So," Natasha speaks up after a while, "what should I do now?"

"That's up to you," Francis replies. "What do you want?"

"Well – " Natasha hesitates. "I like him, I do – I really do. I just don't want to be used, and if you're right, which I know you are, that's exactly what Mark is planning. Let's just see what happens, I think. Perhaps he'll just continue ignoring me. That might be best for everyone."

"Just don't forget to tell us as soon as he makes a move," Francis warns her, and Natasha laughs. A small laugh, but it is a laugh.

"I will," she promises. "Let's go back inside, alright? We might catch a cold out here."

As soon as we walk back into the castle, I'm intercepted.

"Rose! I was just looking for you." Natasha and Francis grin widely from behind Lorcan while I just blush like a madwoman. "Oh, hi Natasha, Francis."

They immediately wipe their grins off of their faces and smile like the two little angels they're not. "Hi Lorcan," they chorus.

"We must really go," Francis says.

"Yes, we must," Natasha adds, nodding frantically. "We wouldn't want to keep you from your rounds. You must be very busy."

Francis chortles at this and Natasha drags her to the nearest bathroom before she chokes on her own spit, but not before sending me a _very_ obvious wink. Lorcan turns towards me, clearly confused by this behaviour.

"What was that about?" he asks as we start climbing the stairs to the fifth floor.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," I reply, careful not to look him in the eye.

"So," he says once we reach the fifth floor, "you wanted to talk?"

"Uh – yeah, I suppose I did, right?" I laugh nervously. After this afternoon's debacle (I mean, he wasn't even with Erin! Sure, I'm glad, but it makes me feel so stupid…), I don't really know how to behave around him. He's such a confusing person. Thinking about what I just talked about with Natasha and Francis – about boys liking you for who you are or because they want to have sex – I blush again. Wow. When Lorcan is concerned, I really don't want to think about that, to be honest. How embarrassing. "Uh – " I stutter, "what – what made you so angry last week?"

He reddens – he seems to do that quite a lot lately – and mutters something. "I already figured you'd ask about that," he says awkwardly. "I – don't know. I mean – I think I do, but I can't really tell you."

"Why not?" I ask suspiciously. Now that I think about it – by ranting about how family should stick up for each other he practically told me to tell Al about Erin. Why would he, if he's been with her at some point?

"I just can't," he says nervously, licking his lips. "I made a promise."

"To whom?" I ask. Sometimes, I'm too curious for my own good.

"I can't tell you, Rose." I can hear that he's becoming a little impatient with me. Understandable. "I can't. And I won't tell you, so you'd better save yourself the trouble and stop asking about it, alright?"

This is just going wonderfully – this is the second time within a week that he's snapping at me. "Okay then," I reply, and I put my hands in my pockets to prevent them from just hanging by my side. Biting my lower lip to prevent myself from saying something stupid, I walk on without looking whether he's coming or not. At the moment, I don't care. I don't care that I actually fancy the pants off this boy, for all he's doing lately is frustrating me.

"See," I suddenly hear from somewhere behind me. I don't care. I just continue walking. "You're doing it again. Why do you keep running away from me?" Oh, come on. It's not as if it's a regular occurrence. Alright, perhaps it is – it has happened three times in a week, of which two times were today. Even though I wasn't really running away from him earlier. "Rose." By now, he's in front of me, blocking my path. "I'm talking to you. Honestly, what's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with _me_?" Oh, that was really a wrong question. It was possibly the worst question he could've asked me at this moment. "What's wrong with _you_? You avoided me too, this week! It's not as if you're completely innocent in this matter, Scamander!" I try to push past him, but he won't let me. Grabbing my shoulders, he forces me against a wall – in any other scenario, I'd be embarrassed and self-conscious, but now I'm just caught off guard – and glowers down at me. Slowly, though, his expression turns sad. That's when I avoid his gaze.

"Rose," he says softly, twirling a strand of my hair between his fingers. "If you don't tell me what's wrong, how am I supposed to explain to you what you want to know? What do you want me to say?"

"Tell me, Lorcan," I start harshly, causing him to let go of my shoulders. I swallow. "How was she?" I send him a withering glare and march away again.

"What?" he sounds truly surprised. I bet he didn't expect _that_. "Rose, what are you talking about? _Who_ are you talking about?"

I turn around, and he's still standing where I left him. "Erin Vane, of course. Who else would I be talking about? She seems to be _the_ hot topic among boys these days."

He must've been a ninja in a previous life, because as soon as I turn back around, he's at my side. "Are you _serious_?" he asks, staring at me as if I've gone crazy. "Do you know me that badly, Rose?" His tone is almost begging by now. "Do you really think that I'd do that to Al? And why do you even _care_?" From begging, his tone went to disbelief, and to bitterness.

I could tell him the real reason now – that it's eating me from the inside that I actually really _like_ him, and that he could have shagged Erin Vane now and that that's very upsetting to me – but I decide against that and tell him another possible reason. It's just one that's not completely true. "You were right about the family thing," I say, looking pointedly at a nearby painting. "I _do_ feel bad for Al about this whole thing."

"That's it?" he asks, and he looks almost sad again. "I mean, you're right. So I cannot comprehend why you thought that I slept with his girlfriend at some point." He shakes his head, and I know that I screwed up now. Not just a little, but very much. "I don't even like her, Rose. Or are we on last name basis now?" I just continue staring at my shoes. They're very interesting. I think I might need a new pair soon, though. "Never mind. I don't care anymore. Let me tell you this, Rose: what Al sees in Erin has always been a mystery to me. And why you think that I would betray him like that is _also_ a mystery to me. Do you even have something to say for yourself?"

I shake my head quietly. All I want to do now is curl up in bed and cry. Yet, my mouth has other plans. "Then why don't you want to tell Al?"

"I've got my reasons," he says with a strained voice. "I just can't tell him. That's part of my promise. Why can't you?"

"I've got my reasons," I say softly. "He wouldn't believe me anyway, so what's the point?" That, and Erin's threat that's still fresh in my memory. Sure, Lorcan just tried to convince me that he's not interested in her at all, but maybe he was lying, _again_. And I'm sure Erin can be pretty convincing herself if she tries to seduce him. The thought alone gives me the shivers.

"Sure he would," Lorcan mumbles, but he sounds as if he has trouble believing that himself.

"You don't even believe it yourself," I say harshly; honestly, I have no idea what's wrong with me today. "He would believe _you_, though, but _you're_ not telling him."

"I already told you, Rose, I can't."

"And yet you tell me that you've never shagged Erin yourself."

"Because I haven't! Why would I? I don't see what's so appealing about her!"

"Yes, that sounds _very_ believable now!"

"It's more believable than your sudden concern for Al, if that's what you mean."

"Weren't you lecturing me just last week that I should choose family over everything else?"

"Weren't _you_ saying last week that you hated him?"

I glower at him. There's no way he's going to give in, and I'm not planning on doing that either. So I do the first thing that comes to mind: I slap him, right across the face (for what, I don't know, actually) and run off as fast as I can. I want my bed, and I'm in desperate need of some chocolate. Before I've even reached my dorm, I'm in tears already. When did it become such a mess? And why? _Why_ does he have to be so bloody difficult?

And Merlin, what am I supposed to do the next time I see him?

* * *

**A/N**: So, what do you think? Did you like it, hate it, something else? Let me know, please review! :D


	11. Hilarious Howler and hesitation

A couple of days later, I still feel like a mess. Natasha and Francis keep shooting me curious glances. I haven't told them a thing – partly because they weren't in the dorm when I returned from my rounds, and partly because I don't want to burden them with this. And maybe also because I myself have no idea what to say.

I don't know if Lorcan told his friends, but I really don't want to think about that. Besides, I don't exactly like his friends, so who cares what they think? I guess that he sort of _had_ to tell them, though. When I saw him the morning after the incident, my handprint was still visible on his cheek. Oops.

I'm currently sitting in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to brew this potion. I know, I know – that's where my parents and Uncle Harry brewed their Polyjuice Potion as well in their second year. That's why I'm having some doubts about brewing it here – isn't it much too obvious? But Lily insisted.

"You do realise that it's technically illegal what we're about to do?" Lily asks, handing me one of the ingredients as I peer at the book. Its instructions are far from clear, so I hope that I'm doing this right.

"I know," I say vaguely. "But we can always say that we had no idea what kind of potion it was."

"So we just tried it on a few people?" Lily asks.

"Sure, why not?" I say. I don't know what's wrong with me. Usually, things like this make me rather nervous. As I mentioned before, I can be quite dramatic. Now, I'm just calm. I guess I'm sick of being deprived of my diary, not knowing what those boys are doing – are they even still trying to open it or have they given up, but don't want to give it back? – and now this whole Erin situation have made me angry enough to stay calm, however weird it may sound.

Lily mutters something that sounds like 'absolutely nuts', but I can be mistaken. "So how long is this going to take?"

"A month," I say. "Four weeks, maybe."

"A month?" Lily asks. "Couldn't we do something quicker?"

"We could," I reply, checking the book for details on how to stir this potion. "But it's alright. Perhaps we'll even have my diary back before the month is over."

"Let's hope that James doesn't decide to tell Al about this," Lily muses.

"He won't," I tell her. "Or else he'll be dead." Lily nods. "Besides, if Al gives us trouble, we'll just force-feed him this, and who knows what happens then."

Lily looks at me sceptically. "As long as you don't kill him…"

"I'll try my best not to let that happen," I say cheerfully. "But if he tries to mess up our plan, I'll mess him up." Sort of, of course.

"Why does it take so long, though?" Lily asks, looking from her shrinking stack of ingredients, to the small cauldron, and to me. "It looks as if it could be done tonight."

"It takes a while for this to get ready," I say, absorbed in the book. "I can mix most of it today, but in… eleven days we need to add the final ingredients and then two weeks and some days later, we can use it."

"Where do we put it in the meantime?" Lily asks. "We can't be sure that nobody comes here."

"I told you that from the start!" I cry out in exasperation. My calmness seems to have left. "But you wanted to do it here!"

Lily shrugs. "Hey, I never told you that I always give you the right advice."

I snort. She didn't say that indeed, but as my voice of reason, I expected her to have a little more good advice than I already got. But perhaps I was just too greedy and she ran out. Mental note to self, never take Lily's advice anymore. _Ever_.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Breakfast the following morning seems boring at first. I sit with Natasha and Francis, and Lily joined us too not very long ago. She grumbled something about Hugo pissing her off, and I do feel sorry for her. Yet, I'm glad my little brother has his facial hair back. He looked a little scary without it.

When the owl post comes, breakfast isn't quite as boring anymore. Why? Among all the letters and papers the owls bring, there's one red envelope. And that can mean only one thing.

"Someone got themselves a Howler," Francis sings under her breath. In the meantime, I pray silently that Hugo didn't write home about the fluffy thing that exploded in his face. I'm too young to die. Then, Lily nudges me.

"Look," she whispers, "it's heading Al's way!"

What? I look at the Ravenclaw table (where Al always eats, in case you hadn't noticed) and see that the owl, indeed, is flying straight at my cousin. Who would send him a Howler now, though? Neither Lily nor I wrote home to complain about him.

As a true Gryffindor, Al tries to hand the Howler to his friends, who all back away. In the end, he opens it anyway, just before it explodes… in his face. That must feel familiar.

"Albus Severus Potter!" the Howler says. Yes, _says_. As in, it doesn't scream, shout, yell, curse, or anything. No, it's just talking. In an all too familiar voice. "Dearest brother."

I stare towards the Ravenclaw table, dumbstruck, along with everyone else in the Great Hall. Al looks like he's being pranked (it wouldn't be the first time) and Natasha asks me silently, "Why would your cousin send his brother a Howler?"

"I don't care," Francis, who heard Natasha's question, says, "it's funny!"

The Howler, with James' voice of course, continues after this… very long silence. "What have you done now, Al? Mum and dad would be severely disappointed. And I think we all know how you feel about disappointing them, don't you?"

Al's facial expression is one of horror now. He probably thinks that James is going to spill all his deepest, darkest secrets here.

"Al," James continues, "we know that you feel terribly underappreciated sometimes, but this way of getting the attention you want is not a right one, brother dearest. Be patient, and you'll get your time in the lime light. Right now, you've sunk to a very low level, Al, and that pains even me."

Everyone is still staring at Al and his odd Howler incredulously. I don't blame them. I had no idea that James was planning to do this.

"Yes," he says, "_even_ me. Albus, I thought you were a mature person by now, but you're still the little boy I grew up with. Tell me something, Al, why did you do it? No, don't answer – I can't hear you anyway. You know what's the right thing to do, don't you? I know you do. Just do it. You can do it. Mum and dad will be very proud of you."

With that, the Howler rips itself to pieces. Then, everyone starts laughing, or whispering to one another. I, however, know who's going to be blamed for this, so I try to sneak out of the Great Hall (true Gryffindor, just like Al). It's time for class anyway. As I step out of the Great Hall, I hear a voice over the laughing and chattering.

"ROSE!"

That's my cue to start running. If I make it to the classroom, he can't hurt me – or so I like to tell myself.

It's just too bad that I'm not used to running at all, and Al is, due to Quidditch practices. Moments before I can dive into the safety of our Transfiguration classroom, he's at my side and grabs my arm.

"Rose," he repeats, as I bend over, panting. I'm never doing that again, I almost can't breathe. "Rose, cut it out. It's not as if you ran that far."

As I regain my breath, I tell him, still wheezing, "Maybe not for you, but for me, it was."

"Right," he says, looking at me oddly. "Anyway, Rose, what on earth was that? What was that good for?"

"Believe me, Al," I start, before I realise something, "even though I know that you most likely won't – just, this once, believe me. I had no idea that James was planning that."

"I'm not so sure of that," he says.

"Come on, Al," I say. I still have some trouble breathing. "It's not that hard to believe. Do you honestly think I have the creativity and the imagination to come up with that Howler idea?"

"You're right," he mutters after a second, his face thoughtful, "only James Potter can come up with that idea."

"Thanks," I say, clasping his shoulder. I walk into the classroom and sit down. Resting my face on my desk, I listen to my own heartbeat. It's still horribly quick.

"Tell me something else, then, Rose," Al says, walking in too. He leans against the desk in front of me and I look up tiredly.

"What, Al?" I say, and he shakes his head at my (pathetic) state.

"How did James even know of our… little spat?" he asks. "I don't recall telling him."

"I do," I say, before I have the chance to think. That stupid mouth of mine is going to ruin me one day. "I mean, I might have mentioned it."

"You might have _mentioned_ it," Al repeats. "Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"I don't know," I say, finally able to speak normally again. "Ask yourself that."

He eyes me suspiciously. Suddenly, he smirks. This cannot be good.

"So, Rose, let's change the subject. What did I hear about you starting a fight with Lorcan?" I groan, causing his smirk to grow. "Why did my best mate walk around with your hand on his cheek for two days?" Two days? Oh Merlin, kill me please. It was even worse than I thought.

"That's none of your business, Al," I say flatly.

"Oh, but I think it is," he says. "It is my business when one of my friends and one of my cousins fight."

"It was nothing," I say.

"That's not what Lorcan said," Al muses. "He said you went berserk about something."

I sit up, furious. "I did not go berserk at all! We just – had a disagreement and neither of us was going to give in so I slapped him."

"And then you ran off," Al finishes. The corners of his lips turn upwards just a little bit. "I am surprised, though, Rose, that you now physically assaulted Lorcan."

Remembering an earlier conversation, some time ago, I avoid his gaze. It's true; I still can't believe it myself. "He had it coming," I say stiffly.

"Let me tell you this, Rose: if a girl went around screaming her head off and slapping me in the face – well, I don't find that very attractive in a girl, myself. Sure, who knows how Lorcan feels about that, but I wouldn't even _consider_ dating you anymore."

"Well then," I say, not planning on letting Al win this just like that, "it's good that you're my cousin and Lorcan is not you, right? Besides, I know what you consider attractive in a girl. Everyone has their own taste, I know, but your taste is just completely incomprehensible." I know that lost of boys around here would disagree with me on that, but Al doesn't need to know, for multiple reasons.

"You're just jealous," Al says scathingly, "that I have a girlfriend and you're still single." I narrow my eyes at him. Oh, if only he knew what his girlfriend is _really_ like, he would be wishing he was single too. He's saved, though, when the rest of our class mates walk in.

Once again, I can't focus on what is said. Plus, I have the odd feeling that someone's staring at me. Again. I'm growing more paranoid every day. I don't dare to look around the classroom, though, because the Professor notices every movement we make.

As soon as we're dismissed, I throw my stuff back into my bag, get up and turn around. And look straight into a pair of piercing blue eyes. Neither of us moves, until Natasha accidentally bumps into me. Realising what was happening, I quickly walk out of the classroom, while Lorcan seems to wake up too. Well, good morning.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

That evening, I do some homework in the library. Fortunately, it's not too hard. When I leave the library, someone grabs my arm.

"Rose! I was just looking for you!"

I cringe, and squeeze my eyes shut. Make me disappear, please. Or him, I don't care. "Really, you were?" I ask, forcing a smile.

"Yeah, I was," Lorcan says, seeming perplexed that I doubt what he's saying.

I scoff. "Are you sure it wasn't a certain dorm mate of mine you were looking for?"

"Rose," he says again. He looks terribly hurt by now, and I feel bad. Just a little bit. "Don't say that. When are you going to believe me when I say that I'm not attracted to Erin _at all_?"

"As soon as you tell me what you're hiding," I say, trying to wrench my arm out of his grip. He won't let me. "Uh – I am sorry about the slap, though, so – "

"Really?" he asks. "You are?" I look at him, and he's almost glaring at me. I feel like crying.

I now jerk my arm out of his grip. "Yes, I was. If you continue being like this, I'm not sure if I'll be sorry for long."

He snorts. "If _I_ continue being like this? Rose, you are the one who gets worked up over nothing. Nothing. At _all_. I have no idea why you even care so much."

"You know what?" I tell him. "Neither do I. So I'll just stop caring now, won't I?" And once again, I stalk away from him. This is not going well.

Now I don't even know why he was even looking for me. Although, I do have an idea. Possibly, he wanted to talk about the fight and try to make it better. And I screwed that up by starting to fight all over again. It seems that I'm the one who's being difficult here, now, no matter what I tell him.

"Rose? Are you alright?" Leaning against a window-sill is Will (yes, I'm aware that that rhymes. Not the time).

"I'm fine," I say feebly. He looks at me curiously.

"Did you just fight with Lorcan?" he asks. "I didn't even know that was possible. He's always so easygoing."

"I suppose I just really pissed him off," I tell him. It's true, I did. I don't know how this got so out of hand. And why would he keep trying to make it up? Wouldn't he be much better off if he'd just leave me alone? "How much did you hear?"

He shrugs. "Not too much. But enough to know that this wasn't the first time you fought."

"Yeah, it wasn't," I say, looking past Will, out of the window. "It's happened before."

"It'll be fine," he tries to reassure me. "He doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge forever, and neither do you. You'll work something out."

"I hope so," I say quietly. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I was on my way back to the common room when I heard you two," he informs me. "And you know, human beings are curious by nature, so… I'm sorry for eavesdropping."

I nod, and say, "Let's go to the common room, then." As we walk, I tell him, "Don't worry about the eavesdropping. I overheard you lot talking a couple of days ago as well. About… Erin and Natasha."

"Mark is an idiot," Will promptly says, and I turn towards him, surprised. But he just keeps walking, albeit with slightly redder ears.

"He's your best friend," I say, wondering where his comment suddenly came from.

"Best friends don't always have to agree on everything," he replies, and I know he's right. After all, Francis and I both think Mark's an arse, but Natasha likes him. If Lorcan is speaking the truth, which I hope he is (though I'm still not sure), he doesn't see Erin's appeal, while Al does.

"I know," I say, and then there's a silence. "Could you not tell your friends about this?" I ask after a minute.

"What? Me eavesdropping on you or you eavesdropping on us?" he asks, smiling a little.

"Both?" I ask, putting on my hopeful face.

"Sure, why not," he says. "I don't think they would care so much anyway."

"Thanks," I says appreciatively. We enter the common room, and Natasha and Francis, who sit by the fire, look up. Mark and Richard are nowhere to be seen, and Will seems to take this as a opportunity to follow me as I walk towards my friends.

"Hey, girls," he says, "mind if I sit?"

They look at him as if they don't quite understand why he's even here, but allow him to sit anyway.

"Rose," Natasha says, "where were you?"

"Library," I respond. They should know by now that whenever they think I'm missing, I'm in the library, most likely.

"Until now?" Natasha asks.

"Sort of," I mutter. "On my way from there to here, I got into another fight with Lorcan and I met Will, so that cost me some time too."

"_Another_ fight with Lorcan?" Francis inquires. "Rose, since when are you fighting with Lorcan on a regular basis?"

"No!" Natasha almost screams, her eyes wide. "Rose, don't tell me that that handprint on his face was yours!"

I smile at her uneasily, and Francis stares at me too. "Seriously, Rose? What is it with you nowadays? And then there was that other time, when – " She suddenly seems to realise that Will's sitting with us now. "You know. Never mind."

Will smiles awkwardly. "Should I leave?"

"Oh, no," I say quickly. "Don't leave on our account."

"It's okay," Will says equally quickly. "I'll just go and see if Richard and Mark are upstairs."

At the sound of Mark's name, Natasha perks up. She smiles at Will, and I think I just saw his ears go red again. I'm not an expert, but that could cause some trouble. "Alright, then," I say. "We'll see you around, I suppose."

"Oh, yeah, of course." He takes a few steps towards the stairs, before hesitantly turning back to us again. "Uh, Natasha? Would you – er – " He scratches his head as if he completely forgot what he was even going to say.

"Yes?" she asks. If she's surprised, she's good at hiding it.

"Would you want to go to Hogsmeade with me some time?" Will blurts out. "I mean, if you want to. I understand if you don't want to, so – "

"No, no," Natasha hastily interrupts him. She gives him a charming smile, and there his ears go again. "I'd love to go to Hogsmeade with you some time."

"Great," Will says, grinning. "Awesome. Uh – I'm going to – go. Bye, girls."

"Bye Will," we all chorus.

Francis shakes her head once he's gone. "Odd boy, he is."

"He's nice enough," I say.

"Why did you agree to go to Hogsmeade with him?" Francis asks Natasha, who's examining her nails now.

"Well," she says, "it's obviously some sort of ploy. I mean, he knows I like Mark, so my guess is that he's trying to help me make Mark jealous and… you know."

Francis and I exchange wry smiles. This can only go horribly wrong, but we don't tell Natasha – she probably wouldn't want to hear it.

"Now, Rose, tell us about Lorcan," Francis says, smirking at me. I roll my eyes.

"There's nothing to tell," I reply.

"Oh, we've heard that before," Natasha says. She stands up from the couch and pulls me up as well. "Come on, let's go to the dorm, where you can tell us everything. Because we know you haven't been telling us everything."

"You haven't been telling us anything, actually," Francis says, getting up as well. "So prepare to talk, Rose, because we're not going to let you go until we've heard it all."

Great. I have the feeling that this'll be a long night.

* * *

**A/N**: Once again, I'm sorry for taking a while. Hopefully you still liked the chapter :) Let me know what you think, please review!


	12. Rose: rambling and rational

It may be hard to believe, but I'm a mess. Yes, I was a mess before, but I'm even more of a mess now. Natasha and Francis have kept me up till late the past few nights, and I'm still not on speaking terms with Lorcan. To make matters worse, Al keeps smirking at me whenever we pass in the hallways, and I'm fairly certain that it's not just about my fight with Lorcan. Malfoy and Lysander seem inseparable this week, you don't see one without the other. Every time I see them, they exchange knowing glances and send me identical smug looks. I don't know exactly what they're trying to tell me (or trying not to tell me), but it can't be good.

"Rose? Rose!" I'm currently at lunch, sighing to myself and wallowing in self pity, desperate to come up with a solution for my problem. Al's right – I wouldn't want to date a bloke who kept screaming at me and went crazy over what seemed very small, insignificant and potentially untrue things either. Tonight's another patrol and I have no idea what'll happen.

My best guess, at this moment, is that they kidnap Lorcan (or he stays behind willingly, who knows) and have Lysander take his place. He then will make this night a living hell for me, or he'll try to make me tell him how to open my diary. Not that I can't tell the difference between Lorcan and Lysander, but with a few minor spells, they might look very alike. Or they could feed Lysander (or Malfoy, or Al) Polyjuice Potion to make him look like Lorcan. I immediately discard this idea, though. There's a reason why they're not in Potions class anymore – they could never brew a Polyjuice Potion.

Yes, I know that mum did that in her second year. But she's exceptionally smart. None of those three boys is exceptionally smart. Even in their sixth year, they wouldn't be able to tell a Polyjuice Potion from Amortentia, I'm sure.

"Rose! Are you listening?" I suddenly realise that someone's been trying to get my attention for at least five minutes.

"Will!" I say, surprised to find him there. He and his friends never really hung out with us girls before, so the fact that he's now constantly around is still something I need to get used to. "What's wrong?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for ages!" he says, shocked that all of a sudden, I _am_ listening and responding. "Anyway, could we talk for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," I tell him. "What's wrong?"

He looks around carefully. "Not here," he hisses. "Let's go outside." Without asking whether I am, I don't know, still eating or something outrageous like that, he grabs my elbow and drags me out of the Great Hall.

"Will!" I protest. "I can walk by myself, you know?"

"Would you come if I let you walk by yourself?" he wants to know.

"Probably not," I say, shrugging. "But still, I can walk." Once we're outside, he pushes me towards the greenhouses. "Isn't it a better idea to stay in the open field?" I ask. "That way, at least we can see if someone's coming."

He thinks this over. "You're right, Rose. Let's stay here, then." He sits down and gestures for me to sit down too. As I plop down, I wince.

"The ground is almost like a rock!" I say, looking down accusingly.

"It is a rock," Will says matter-of-factly.

"But it's so hard!" I whine.

Will chooses not to comment on this (a very wise choice) and looks around once more. "Rose, do you think Natasha _really_ likes Mark?"

I don't need to think long about the answer. "Yeah, she does. I thought you knew that – with all the comments about giggling whenever he was around and staring at him and whatnot. She's pretty obvious."

"Yeah, I figured as much," he says quietly. "But – does she really like him or is it just a small crush? What do you think?"

"I have no idea, Will," I tell him truthfully. "You should really ask her this."

"No, that's alright," he says hurriedly. "Let's not tell Natasha about this, alright?"

"Sure," I say, frowning a little. "Why do you want to know?"

"I just want to know," he says, shrugging. "I did ask her to Hogsmeade and all…"

"Wasn't that just a ploy to make Mark jealous?" I ask. I was fairly sure that it was, but the longer I think about it, I start hesitating more and more about whether or not Will explicitly said that.

He looks at me in disbelief. "What? No! Of course not." He shakes his head. "Is that why she said yes?"

Without thinking, I say, "Yeah, why?" Only then do I realise that he actually sounded… sad when he asked that question. "I mean – " I start, but he shakes his head.

"I knew it," he mumbles. "I should've known."

"Will," I say, realisation dawning on me, "you don't – " I can only stare at him. This is bad. Especially since Natasha not only likes someone else (Will's best friend, no less), but also thinks that he's only going out with her to make that someone else jealous. He just gives me a sad look. "You do, don't you?" I suddenly feel very bad about how I've dealt with this situation.

"Yes, I do," he says, staring past me towards the Whomping Willow. "The fact that Mark keeps prancing around the fact that she'd be willing to do whatever he wants makes it even worse." He sighs. "But I suppose I'll just have to try to make the best of it. Even if I don't stand a chance."

"Will, don't say that," I try to console him. "At least she doesn't hate you, otherwise she wouldn't even have agreed to go to Hogsmeade with you. Just try to make her see that you like her, that you care for her, something Mark doesn't…"

He shakes his head. "It's no use, Rose. I can see the way she looks at him. There's nothing I can do about that. Thanks for being so honest."

"Will," I say, tugging his arm. "I'm sorry about being so… straightforward about it. But it's never too late. Just be there for her. Be yourself. In comparison, you come off as a lot nicer than Mark."

"Thanks, Rose," he says. "But I don't know. Do you really think I should still go on a date with her, while she thinks it's just supposed to make Mark jealous?"

"You could give it a try," I reply. To be honest, I have no idea either. "I'll ask Francis about it, yeah? Perhaps she knows what you should do."

He nods simply. "Sure, if you think it helps. Just don't tell Natasha, please?"

"Of course not," I assure him. He smiles.

"Thanks Rose," he repeats. He pulls me into a friendly hug, but lets go quickly, something I'm rather happy about. It's not as if we know each other that well, so hugging is a little awkward. "Now, let's go to class. We wouldn't want to be late."

I roll my eyes. "Imagine what they'd think if we'd turn up late, together."

He blushes a bit, and I'm sure that my face doesn't have its regular colour anymore either. "Yeah…" he says slowly. "As I said, let's go."

"It's a pity you can't speak Parseltongue, like your dad could," I tell Lily during our next meeting in the bathroom.

"Why?" she asks, staring from the cauldron to me with a questioning look.

"Then we could put this cauldron down in the Chamber of Secrets," I reply, grinning. "Think of all the possibilities…"

"Then Al would be able to speak Parseltongue as well, though," Lily points out, and I grimace. Of course. Al always ruins everything. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be spending my free afternoon in this toilet.

"Do you think if we would put this cauldron in that corner over there, and cast a Disillusionment charm over it, we could just leave it here?" I ask Lily.

"We can always try it," she says. "What other options do we have?"

"Room of Requirement," I say. "But we're never going to get this thing in there now. It's far too heavy."

Lily nods. "We'll just leave it in the corner, then," she says, looking around.

"Wait," I say, suddenly thinking of something. "What if Myrtle decides to flood the bathroom?"

We're silent for a while, trying to hear if said ghost is around at the moment. She's usually very expressive when it comes to emotions, so when we don't hear her after half a minute, we conclude that she's not here. "That could be slightly problematic," Lily agrees. "How long until we've added all the ingredients?"

"A week," I reply, chopping dodgy looking somethings to pieces.

"I can try to keep it under my bed," Lily offers, observing my actions. "Nobody comes there, usually."

"Who knows where the House-Elves go," I say, concentrating on my stirring now. "Besides, then we might as well take it to the Room of Requirement, don't you think?"

Lily pulls a face. "Yeah, that's true," she says. "But still, there's nowhere else to go, is there? What about your dorm?"

"Then we'd have to tell Natasha and Francis," I say, thinking out loud. "Not to mention the House-Elves come there, too."

"We don't have that much of a choice, do we?" Lily says. "And Erin? What about her?" We simultaneously shudder.

"She's almost never there," I blurt out. Erin spends her nights in empty classrooms with male companions, after all.

"She isn't?" Lily asks. "Why? Is she with Al? He always tells me that they haven't had sex yet, so I should abstain from that as well."

Oops. Lily, of course, doesn't know about Erin and her nightly escapades. "Yeah, well," I say, thinking quickly. "That's what he says."

Lily just shrugs; she doesn't seem very interested in Erin whatsoever. I wish that was possible for me, but her threat is still fresh in my memory. "Let's go, then," I say, standing up. Fortunately, the cauldron is small enough to actually fit underneath my bed. Hopefully it won't make any weird noises at night, though.

It takes us some time, but in the end, we manage to get the cauldron up to the seventh floor. Since I'm older, and therefore, according to Lily, stronger (she's clearly crazy), she casts a Disillusionment charm over me and sends me up the stairs. Meanwhile, she'll try to keep my dorm mates out of the dorm for as long as needed. Since there's nobody there, and nobody even walks upstairs while I'm putting the cauldron under my bed, that was very unnecessary.

Lily doesn't really react as I tell her this, but instead says, "Let's go to dinner, I'm hungry."

Slightly peeved, I walk out of the common room again, Lily following behind. Walking through a corridor at the third floor, I suddenly stop dead in my tracks.

"Rose? What – " Lily starts, but I place a finger over my mouth, indicating that she should be silent. There are muffled voices somewhere nearby and I'm determined to find out who they are and what they're discussing. I sneak closer to the classroom the voices are coming from and crouch down next to the door. Lily crouches down behind me and gives me a look that clearly asks, 'What are we doing here?'

I point at the door and lean towards it, trying to hear what's said inside.

" – conclude that she made up a spell herself."

My heart stops; that's Al's voice. This is it, I'm done for.

"How are we going to figure that out, then?" Malfoy doesn't seem very happy with the news.

_Hopefully never_, I think.

There's a pretty long silence, until Al breaks it. "I think I've got a solution for that."

He does? Well, that's comforting.

"You do?" Lysander sounds as surprised as I feel. Lily has raised her eyebrows as well and she sends me a worrying glance.

"Yes, gentlemen. I've got the _perfect_ solution."

That's all I need to hear. I can already feel myself going crazy again. I slowly stand up and sneak away; fortunately, Lily follows me. It appears that Lorcan isn't my biggest problem anymore.

That evening, I decide to go to the Entrance Hall to wait for Lorcan. I have no idea where else we could meet up, and if he can't find me, he can just ask Al for the Map. Or he could go the rounds by himself, I couldn't care less.

"Well, what have we got here? If it isn't Rose, our _beloved_ Prefect." My blood starts boiling; I have to literally restrain myself from jumping up from where I'm sitting on the stairs and throttling her right at this spot.

"If it isn't Erin, our local slag," I mutter, looking anywhere but at her.

"Thank you, dear," she says sweetly. "I wear that title with pride. At least I can get some action, unlike _some_ of us." She smirks at me triumphantly, but I won't let her win so easily.

"At least I have _morals_, unlike some of us," I say, standing up to appear taller, and trying to sound confident.

"Oh, Rose," she says, still smirking. "Who wants morals nowadays? Except for you and – him." She looks sideways now, with a repulsed look on her face. It makes her even less attractive.

I look around too, to find Lorcan standing there, glancing from me to Erin and back. "Am I interrupting something?" he asks, not sounding quite at ease in this situation.

"No, Scamander," Erin says, sounding rather disgusted. "You're not interrupting _anything_." She sends me another sickeningly sweet smile. "I'll see you around, Rose. You can bet all your money on that." Without sparing Lorcan another glance, she struts away, but not before forcefully bumping into me.

"Oh, I hate her," I mutter.

"As I've said before," Lorcan comments, still standing a couple of feet away, "I really don't see why Al likes her so much."

"And the rest of the school," I remind him.

"Right," he says, and for a second, we just stand there, suddenly remembering that we're not really supposed to be this friendly towards one another, after what happened last week.

Without saying anything else, we almost automatically start walking towards the fifth floor. While walking, I ponder on how Erin looked at Lorcan. She didn't seem to like him very much. I don't know much about Erin, but I do know that she flirts with every male in this school, provided they're not _too_ young. I've seen her flirting with many blokes I've also caught her with. I look at Lorcan curiously. I don't see why Erin would be so disgusted by him, but that's all the better for me, right?

"Lorcan?" I ask carefully. He keeps looking at the end of the corridor, pretending not to hear me. Fine, then. I'm not going to beg him to listen to me. I'll just talk, and he can ignore me, or listen. His pick.

"So," I start, wondering where to even start. Let's just do it quickly – it'll be over sooner, and less painful (I hope). "I'm sorry about slapping you last week, and about starting a fight again a few days ago. I was just – angry and mad and… stupid, I guess."

"I'm sorry too," he says softly. "For… shouting at you that first time. And for letting it get so out of hand."

"Don't be," I tell him firmly. "It wasn't your fault, after all." I did all the screaming, shouting, and accusing. I might've blown everything out of proportions. I've been acting like a drama queen, overall.

"I should've tried to stop you from blowing up like that," he says just as firmly. "I should've stayed calm. Why were you even so angry?"

"I suppose I just didn't like the idea of you and Erin, because… you know, we're friends, right? Sort of. And she's a slag, and I guess I was just a little… concerned," I say after a short pause. Lorcan just stares at the floor.

"You're right," he says after what seems like hours. "We're friends, so as my friend, you should've believed me when I told you there was nothing between me and Erin."

"I know," I mutter, slightly disappointed by his firm agreement that we're (just) friends. "I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you believe me anyway?" he asks.

If only I knew the answer to that. "It just seemed so suspicious, you know?" I shrug. "You not wanting to tell Al at any cost. And you wouldn't tell me why."

"As my friend, you should've believed me, though, when I said that I had never been with Erin."

"I know," I reply sorrowfully. "And I wanted to believe it, it was just so hard. Aren't friends supposed to tell each other everything?"

"Uh, no," he decides, "not necessarily. So, tell me, Rose, what was up with Natasha last week? She seemed pretty distraught."

"I can't tell you that," I say, blinking. "Why do you even want to know?"

"You just said friends tell each other everything, didn't you?" he asks, and I know that I fell for his little ploy.

"That's different," I try to protest. "Natasha's my friend too, she would kill me if I told you!"

"Exactly," he says quietly, and I glance sideways. "Some things you can't just tell other people – friends, even – because you promised another friend you wouldn't tell."

I immediately get what he's saying – well, that's a first – and nod. "Okay," I tell him. So I still don't know what is going on with Erin that Lorcan can't tell me about, but if he's telling the truth now, he knows something he can't tell anyone. He promised a friend. Which, of course, still isn't that comforting because Lorcan's best friends are Al's best friends as well. But I decide to ignore that for now. "Is that why Erin seemed so… disgusted when she noticed you?"

"Very likely," he replies. "But – as a friend," he continues, and I mentally prepare myself for something I don't want to hear, "what were you doing during lunch?"

"I was eating," I tell him, surprised that it was just that. I am relieved, though.

"That's not what I meant," he says, rolling his eyes. "With… Will – right?"

"Oh," I say, having forgotten about that already. "That was nothing."

"Really?" he asks. "I think we've had this discussion before, Rose." Indeed we have. I stare at my feet.

"But there was really nothing going on!" I say. "Why – what must've been wrong?"

"I don't know, Rose, you tell me."

"He needed to talk to me," I say exasperatedly. "He needed my advice – yes, I know, unbelievable, someone needing _my_ advice – and he didn't want to talk in the Great Hall so we went outside to talk and – why do you even _care_?"

I notice that he's smiling a little by now. "Just what you said, Rose. Friends are supposed to look out for each other."

"Will wouldn't hurt a fly," I tell him.

"You never know, do you?" he says. "Anyway, I'm glad you're alright."

No matter if he's acting stupid or not, and no matter that it absolutely makes no sense at all, that final comment causes me to smile giddily. "And I'm glad we're alright. We are, right?"

"Of course we are, Rose," he replies, smiling as well. "So, are you still mad at my brother and my friends?"

"Of course," I answer. He doesn't need to know that I've had polite conversations with Al and Lysander. And a not very polite one with Al, after that, though I suppose he can easily guess that the latter one took place. "They still haven't returned my diary to me."

He stares at his feet. "Yeah, of course," he says, sounding a little uneasy. I decide to change the subject.

"Have you found any Nargles lately?" I ask happily (perhaps a little _too_ happily).

"Sorry, Rose… what?" he asks, giving me a strange look. "I don't look for Nargles. That's my mum, remember?"

"You were looking for Nargles not too long ago," I say, becoming a little suspicious now. What else would he have been doing on the floor in the Gryffindor common room? Yeah, he later said he fell, but that was a lie as well, as far as I'm aware.

Lorcan, in the meantime, looks at me as if I've gone crazy. "No, I wasn't."

I scoff. "Perhaps you should start remembering which lies you do and do not tell, then." I want to walk away, but he grabs my shoulder and holds me back.

"Rose, I really don't know what you're talking about. Why do you keep running away from me?" He looks at me with a slight pout, and I sigh.

"Last week, after you helped Hugo with his essay," I say, and I leave the rest up to him to figure out.

"Oh," he says after a while. "Right, I remember." I look at him, to see if he's going to say anything else. It doesn't look like it, though he is turning red. But as we've established before – he looks adorable when he's uncomfortable. "That was – just once."

He's still lying through his teeth, but I decide not to push the matter. Only this time, though. "It didn't suit you, then?" I ask.

He grins, clearly relieved that I let the matter drop. "No, not really," he responds.

Now that we're civil towards each other once more (friendly, even), the patrols aren't as bad as I expected them to be. Which is a _very_ good thing. The evening flies by, actually. When we're done, and I'm back in the common room, I realise that I only have one big problem left now – my diary, again. Oh, and the Will situation, of course. As I climb into my bed, I notice vaguely that my wand's on my nightstand. That's weird – I thought I had it with me the entire night. Then I probably just left it here at some point. I can't really be bothered.

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry for the long wait, again. I'm hoping I'll be able to update more frequently during the summer, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see for that, right? Anyway, what do you think of this? I hope you liked it :) Let me know what you thought, please leave a review! :)


	13. Impersonation issues

**A/N**: The awkward moment when you want to update a story after many, many months, and realise that you didn't even put up the chapter before that. I don't know if anyone's still reading/following this because I don't blame you if you don't, but I finished this story even longer ago than my last update took place (it might've even been a year since I finished this), and I kind of want to post the rest some time soon as well. Then again, who knows how long it'll take me... Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy this one too! :)

* * *

A few days pass, and the cauldron is still stuffed away safely underneath my bed. After today, it'll only need to brew for two and a half more weeks. Sometimes, I'll have to stir, and I have to make sure it won't cool down too much. And then it's done. I cannot wait.

"What do we do when the potion's done?" Lily asks. She just came in with the Map (stolen from Al, of course) and the last few ingredients. Let's just hope Professor Bell won't notice all this missing stuff from his cabinet.

"We take them down, one by one," I start, searching for the Potions book in my trunk. Once I've found it, I open it at the right page, and look at the ingredients. "We take away their wands and tie them to chairs. We force-feed them the potion, ask them where the diary is, and go find it."

"Why would we need to take them all down?" Lily asks, leaning against my bedpost. "One should be enough, don't you think?"

"But what if one of the others has it at that moment?" I say, and she contemplates this.

"Perhaps I know something that might help on our quest," she says. "Do you have some parchment? I need to write dad."

Not sure what Lily needs to write Uncle Harry for, but too busy to ask for an in depth explanation, I point at my bag. The parchment is sticking out of it already. While Lily scribbles, I stir the cauldron.

"Lily," I sing quietly, not even knowing _why_ I'm singing, "can you check the Map for a second?"

I hear some scribbling, then it's quiet for a moment, and then she says, "Nobody's coming."

"Good," I say, squashing some little beans with the side of my knife. "I think I'm almost done adding the ingredients."

"Okay," Lily says slowly. "So we don't have to constantly watch the potion anymore?"

"I can do that," I say. "It's under my bed after all."

"And you know more about potions that I do," Lily adds. "You don't have rounds tonight, do you?"

"No, I don't," I reply. "Why?"

"Then you could take this to the Owlery. If we're almost done, I can get it up there before curfew."

I stare at the potion, deep in thought. "Yeah, I guess we're done," I say to Lily. With combined force, we shove the cauldron back underneath my bed. Then, Lily runs off to post her letter, and I fall down on my bed. It'll be a long day tomorrow – I'd better go to bed.

When I prepare to go to breakfast the next morning, I grab my wand off my nightstand, and my bag from the floor, and walk downstairs. In the Entrance Hall, I suddenly hear voices. No, not in my head. From the dungeons. Slytherins?

No – my Slytherin-ish cousin. Albus Severus Potter.

"Do we have everything now?" he asks. I hear two people muttering something – Lysander and Malfoy.

"We've got everything," Malfoy says.

"Except for a place to brew it," Lysander adds.

"We'll worry about that later. Let me see – yeah, according to this book, this is all we need."

"Isn't that Lorcan's Potions book?" Lysander asks.

"Yeah, it is," Al says, trying to sound nonchalant. "He's getting it back at breakfast or something. We needed some book for ingredients, right? We'll just go to the library to get a book to brew it."

Brew _what_? What are those idiots planning now?

"Your girlfriend is awesome, Al," Malfoy says appreciatively.

Why? Did she screw Malfoy yesterday?

"I know," Al replies. Is it me, or did that sound a little forced? Like he didn't really completely mean it?

"Priori incantatem, I can't believe you thought of that!" Malfoy says, most likely grinning. Or smirking.

"Me neither. But then I remembered a story dad once told me. The rest is history."

Priori incantatem. I've heard of that, but where? As footsteps come my way, I hastily flee into the Great Hall.

"Lily," I say, plopping down next to her at the breakfast table. "Priori incantatem. Does that ring a bell?"

"Dad told about that once," Lily says, and I nod. "Why?"

"Al was talking about it. They used it and now they're going to brew some potion."

"I think that was what happened when dad and Voldemort both wanted to hex the other. The cores of their wands were the same, so there was some weird connection. In the end, the effects of Voldemort's last used spells became visible."

Last used spells. "Do you think it's also a spell you can cast?" I ask. "If I would wave my wand now and say some spell, would those effects appear as well?"

Lily shrugs. "I don't know. Perhaps it's possible."

"Alright," I say. I look around the Great Hall, but Al isn't there. "I've got to run," I tell Lily, and grabbing a sandwich, I'm out of there again.

I sprint up the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room. Between the fourth and fifth floor, however, I hear the voices again. Now I want to know what they're up to. And luck is on my side, because Lorcan is coming down the stairs, and I'm sure he wants to know what his friends are doing.

"Hey, Lorcan," Al greets him. I hide behind a corner; I can't see them, but I can still hear them loud and clear. I'm getting better at this whole spying thing, it seems. "Here's your Potions book."

"Why did you have my Potions book?" he asks, legitimately surprised, and, dare I say it, a little suspicious as well.

"We needed it," his twin tells him.

"What for?" Lorcan asks.

There's a short silence, in which I imagine they look around for any eavesdroppers, and then Malfoy says, "Polyjuice Potion."

Oh, Polyjuice Potion. Wait, what? Polyjuice Potion? Didn't we already establish that these dimwits can never, _ever_ brew Polyjuice Potion?

"Why would you want to brew that?" Lorcan asks in a strange tone. I am weirded out as well, I won't lie.

"That's a long story," Malfoy says.

"But we can give you a few pointers," Al cuts in. "Rose's diary, we can't open it, Erin nicked her wand, Priori Incantatem, we now know the spell but we're going to have to impersonate Rose to open the diary."

"So Polyjuice Potion it is," Lysander finishes.

Wow. This is bad. This is beyond bad. I briefly consider attacking them at the spot, but Lily's words from weeks ago still echo through my mind. I'll be completely outnumbered.

"And we can't really attack her and force her to open it herself," Malfoy says. "Well, we could, I personally wouldn't mind – it's much easier."

But you know what they say about the easiest way, Malfoy.

"Knowing Rose, we'd have to use an Unforgivable on her before she'll even consider opening that diary," Al says. "She's just that stubborn. And though we don't exactly get along, that takes it a little too far for me."

"Plus, we know that you wouldn't like that either," Lysander says, and I suspect this comment was directed at Lorcan, because there's nobody else around. Well, except for me, but they don't know. And even if they did, I don't know how they could ever think that I would be okay with it if they use an Unforgivable on me. Yeah, not likely. If they would even let me voice my opinion, of course.

Footsteps retreat, and I sit on the floor for some more minutes. Strangely enough, I'm not going crazy. I'm sure that'll happen later on. I have to tell Lily about this – at lunch, because Lily's in class now. That reminds me – I have class too.

Cursing loudly, I sprint down the stairs again, dodging various groups of (mostly younger) students and almost tripping over my legs countless times. My first class, of course, is Potions. Completely out of breath, I arrive in the classroom. I can't even apologise for my lateness, that's how breathless I am. And not in a good way.

"Ms Weasley. How nice of you to join us after all. Well, take a seat." Then, Bell addresses the entire class. "You're doing group assignments again. What are you waiting for? Pick a partner!"

I'm still bending over one of the tables, trying to regain my breath, as someone stops in front of me. "Rose? Are you okay?"

I look up and try to smile, but that probably doesn't work, since my mouth is wide open from panting (how attractive). So I nod instead. He seems to get the message anyway.

"Do you want to work together?" Lorcan looks around the classroom. "Though it doesn't look like we have an awful lot of choice, so you're stuck with me."

Closing my mouth before I catch any flies, I send him a weak smile and pat his shoulder awkwardly. Hopefully he understands this as a sign that I don't mind working with him. After all, didn't we agree last week that we're friends?

"What did you do?" he asks as I almost fall down on a chair. Oh, I don't think I'm ever standing up again.

"I ran," I manage to wheeze; very unattractively, I might add.

"Yeah, that I can see, but why?" he asks. I shake my head curtly. He doesn't need to know that I've taken up spying on people as a new hobby. "Do you want some water?" he asks. Oh Merlin, I think I'm going to die. Of happiness, of course. He really is so sweet, and caring, and – expecting an answer from me. Right. I nod fervently, and he conjures up a glass, fills it with water, and hands it over. Sparks fly as our hands touch – in my imagination, at least.

"Mr Scamander, as soon as you and Ms Weasley are finished with getting all cosy, maybe you can start working on your potion? Otherwise I will be forced to deduct both of you some points for your tardiness after all. This is class, not a dating centre." We both cringe, redden, and jump up as Bell is suddenly standing behind us. So much for never standing up again. This is really embarrassing.

"Were you late too, then?" I ask quietly as we put our ingredients at our desk. At least I can talk again by now without having to catch my breath every two seconds.

"I came in right before you did," he says, and I frown. How is that possible if he left minutes before I did? Seeing my confused expression, he elaborates. "My friends kept me standing for some time, and then I was late, and hungry. So I made a detour to the Great Hall. I'm sure Bell would've deducted points if I'd sit here with a rumbling stomach." I chuckle softly at this; he's right, I wouldn't put it past our grudge holding Professor to do just that.

"What did your friends keep you standing for?" I ask as nonchalantly as possible, curious to hear what he'll answer.

He smiles weakly, and he reddens a little. "Nothing important," he blurts out, quickly turning his attention to his book.

Nothing important? Sure, Lorcan. Even if I didn't know the truth, I could easily see through that.

After another class, I run towards the Great Hall. By now, I am in my panicking mode. Took me long enough. Lily already sees me coming and raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong, Rose?" she asks.

"You have to come!" I exclaim. "Come on!"

"Okay?" Lily says, probably wondering if it's safe to come with me now. "Whereto?"

"Dorm?" I propose. "Outside?"

"Let's go outside, then," Lily says, grabbing a few pieces of toast as she goes. "Now," she starts as we sit down underneath a tree by the lake, "what's the problem?"

"They know how to open my diary!" I reply, my eyes wide.

"Oh," is Lily's first reaction. "That is not what I expected." She glances over at me; I'm hyperventilating by now and running my hands through my hair constantly. Well, it is a bad situation. "Then I think you have a right to start panicking."

"Thanks, Lily," I manage to say, rather sarcastically.

"How do you know?" she asks, ignoring my comment. I tell her what I heard this morning. "So," she says, "if I understand this correctly – the boys figured out you invented a spell yourself, had Erin Vane steal your wand, then did a Priori Incantatem with it, figured out the spell but couldn't do it themselves, so they're going to brew a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate you to be able to open the diary?"

"Pretty much, yeah," I mutter. I can't believe I let Erin steal my wand. It must've happened when she bumped into me last week. Oh, that bitch…

"Do you have any idea what to do now?" Lily asks me, with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Not really," I mutter. "We can try to figure out where they're making the potion and dispose of it?"

"We could do that…" Lily says. "How long does it take to brew a Polyjuice Potion?"

"A month, I think," I reply after thinking back to the particular class where we were taught that.

"So we should be done way before them," Lily says. "No need to worry, Rose."

"Unless Erin finds our potion, tells the boys and empties the cauldron."

"That would be slightly problematic, yes. Why don't you put a Disillusionment charm over it so she won't find it so easily?" Lily offers.

"Good idea," I answer. "I'll go do that immediately. And perhaps we can search for their cauldron too some time anyway. It won't hurt to keep them busy."

Lily nods. "We'll do that some time. But if you don't mind, I've got an essay to complete for Divination before lunch is over."

I grin. "Yeah, yeah. I have to run, too."

That night, I'm reading a book in the Common Room as someone pinches my cheek all of a sudden. Disturbed, I look up and see Francis grinning back at me. "Was that necessary?" I ask her.

"Kind of," she replies and sits down. "Anyway, Natasha's already getting very excited for her date."

"She is?" That's surprising. She doesn't even have a date with Mark.

"Yeah, she's convinced that going out with one of his best friends will make Mark notice her."

"Oh, he notices her," I reply before I can stop myself. "But not the way she wants him to."

Francis leans forward a little. "He does?" she asks excitedly. "How?"

I think she missed the second part of what I just said. "He keeps telling his friends that she'll do whatever he'll ask her to, simply because she's so smitten with him."

"Seriously?" Francis asks, not looking very happy. "He really does that? How do you know?"

"Will told me," I say, and she smirks.

"Since when do you and Will chat regularly?"

"Since he asked out Natasha," I respond, "and he wanted to know if she was really so… smitten with Mark as he claims."

Looking slightly disappointed, Francis sits back in her chair. Honestly, what else did she expect? "So Mark is acting like Natasha's his puppet and Will doesn't like that very much?" she asks. "Why's that?"

I roll my eyes. And people say _I'm_ oblivious. "He likes her. Will likes Natasha."

"No!" Francis exclaimed, almost falling out of her chair. She stares at me, wide-eyed. "That's really bad."

Lest this turns out to become one big misunderstanding, I ask her, "Just to be sure – you don't like Will, do you?"

"What? No!" she replies, and she doesn't appear to be lying. "I just think it must be horrible to hear a friend constantly bragging about how the girl you like would do anything for him."

"Exactly," I say. "So do you have any idea what he should do?"

"Make her see that he's much better for her than Mark," Francis replies instantly, and I nod.

"That's what I told him too. Try to make Natasha see reason. And let's hope Mark will screw up soon – perhaps he'll do something she absolutely doesn't like."

"Sounds like a plan," Francis agrees. "So our goals have now drastically changed, haven't they? Instead of making Mark like Natasha, we have to make her fall out of like with him."

I snort quietly. "Weird, isn't it? I'm starting to dislike Mark more and more every day."

"Oh, me too," Francis says, nodding quickly. "He's just horrible. No wonder he's only attracted to horrible girls."

"Too bad Natasha's right in the middle of it," I muse, "and we along with her." Francis just sighs in response.

After a few minutes, someone ruffles my hair. Why do people use all these weird ways to get my attention? It's not as if I'm usually zoned out – that only happen sometimes.

I look behind me and see that it's Hugo. "What?" I ask. Hugo, used to my rudeness towards him, doesn't even blink.

"Lorcan's looking for you," he says, and I hear Francis snickering in the background. I'm feeling pretty elated too, actually. "Something about Prefect rounds."

"Those are tomorrow," I say, slightly disappointed, cocking my head at my brother. Maybe it's a trick. Maybe they want to capture me and torture me to open my diary for them.

He just shrugs. "That's all he told me."

"And why can't he come here and tell me what's going on himself?" I ask, determined not to leave this common room before I know how matters stand.

"He's outside. Outside the common room, I mean," Hugo says. "He didn't want to come in. Apparently, there are a lot of Nargles here." You have got to be kidding me. Only Lorcan can make up that excuse, though, in this context, so I jog up to my dorm to get my badge, and after double-checking that I've got my wand (you can never be sure enough), I go back downstairs. Nodding goodbye to Francis, I clap Hugo's back rather roughly as payback for the hair ruffling.

As I arrive in the hallway, it appears that my brother was right. Lorcan is standing there, looking not quite at ease, but pretending as if he's just chilling out.

"What did you need to speak to me for?" I ask, still standing awkwardly in the portrait hole.

"Oh, Rose! I didn't notice you there!" he says, scratching his ear. "Uh – Mira just told me that we have to patrol tonight instead of tomorrow, because some of the people patrolling tonight can't make it." He rolls his eyes. "But she assured me that it's not a lasting arrangement."

"Oh, alright," I reply. "Shall we… go, then?"

He grins. "Yes, let's do that."

"So," I say, attempting to start a conversation, "Nargles, eh?"

"Yeah," he says, "Nargles. I figured you'd get the hint."

"What hint?" I ask. "That is was really you and not my cousin, trying to play some trick on me, or trying to kidnap me?"

He stares at me. "Sorry, I must've missed something. Why would Al kidnap you?"

I attempt to fake a snort. I wouldn't know if it's believable, though. "Oh, you know Al. Always trying to piss me off." I'm sure he knows the real reason, though I don't know if he knows I know the real reason. Alright, let's stop before I start confusing myself.

"Sure," he replies, looking at me oddly.

"But, seriously," I say, narrowing my eyes slightly. "Why didn't you just come in?"

"The common room?" he asks. Clearly, his mind is elsewhere. Oh well, I still like him anyway. "I figured it'd be quicker to just tell your brother to give you a message. He was going in anyway."

"I don't trust my brother," I tell him matter-of-factly. "So it wasn't exactly quicker."

"Oh, right. Of course." Honestly, I wonder when we'll ever be done questioning each other about something or other. It's almost like the Spanish Inquisition. Why do we insist on telling each other only half of the stories we tell, and why do we keep telling white lies? It's not really a good way to start trusting one another, that's for sure. Yet, he has it coming. He only had to come into the common room – why didn't he just come in? Does he have an unnatural fear of huge amounts of red and gold combined together?

The remainder of the patrol is filled with small talk, mainly about classes. That is, until he says (with a smirk on his face, so I already get a little suspicious before he even start talking), "Do you remember that time when we were little, and your mum made us go to some House-Elf rights convention?"

Oh, I remember that time all too well. It was a disaster. I grin. "Of course I do. Weren't you the one who ended up crying when they were talking about what happens to some Elves?"

"No, that was Lysander," he mutters, but he's blushing. I'm sure he was originally planning on taking this conversation somewhere else.

"That was you," I say, more firmly this time. "Lysander had had too much sugar, so he was running around without hearing anything."

He mutters something under his breath, but I know that I've won this. "Well, weren't you the one who was too scared of giraffes to even come along whenever we'd go to a Muggle zoo?" he retorts.

"Giraffes are very scary animals, I'll have you know!" I protest. "With their long necks." I shudder.

"Aren't you a Gryffindor?" he taunts. "A lion? Lions eat giraffes for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

I pull a face. "Wouldn't that get old after a while?"

He rolls his eyes. "That's not my point, Rose. You're a Gryffindor, and you're scared of giraffes? You're still scared of them, aren't you?"

"Yes," I mutter. "And so what if I'm a Gryffindor? Are we supposed to do everything without having any doubts? Aren't we allowed to be scared of _anything_? You should be glad it's not frogs I'm scared of!"

He groans. "Do you have to bring that up?"

"Yes," I tell him, "yes, I do. You deserved it."

"Fine, alright," he gives in. "You can be scared of something – of course you can. But, Rose, seriously – giraffes?"

"Yes, Lorcan, seriously – giraffes." I stare at him for a moment, but he doesn't have another comment ready. Good for him. "But if I remember correctly, _you're _scared of balloons."

He stares at me. "How did you know?" he asks.

"We grew up together," I say simply. "We were never allowed balloons – oh, get over it," I tell him, rolling my eyes as he flinches even at the mention of the things. "We were never allowed balloons at parties because you would completely freak out. Party pooper."

"Sorry," he mutters, but it doesn't sound very genuine. "I just hate it when they pop and do that boom thing…" Now it's his turn to shudder. "Besides, _I'll_ never forget about that time when you fell off of our raft that time at your uncle's."

"That was because you pushed me off!" I exclaim, shoving him lightly. We're standing still by now, and he laughs.

"I suppose you're right," he says, with a silly smile on his face. I chuckle as well.

"It's too bad those days of innocence are over, isn't it?" I ask wistfully, leaning my head against his shoulder dramatically.

"It sure is," he answers with a long sigh. "Now we're stuck in the jungle of being teenagers." He wraps an arm around my shoulder and we just stand there, in the middle of a corridor, staring ahead of us with – I'm sure – identical loony expressions.

That is, of course, until we both realise what we're doing and with whom. That is the point where we almost jump apart. Talk about awkward.

"So, that was fun," I say when we're done patrolling some time later. I feel almost sad to say goodbye, but I have to… Wow, dramatic much?

"You bet it was," he says, grinning once more. "Hey Rose – uh…"

He's lost for words – so cute. "Yes?" I ask, smiling up at him.

"Do you want to – I don't know – study together some time? I know it's kind of silly to arrange that beforehand because we can always find each other in the library whenever we want to, but I thought it might be fun and – "

"Sure," I interrupt him. Trust me, I recognise word vomit anywhere. Nothing that would make any sense would come out of his mouth anyway. I smile widely. "Sounds like fun." And like another opportunity to spend some time with Lorcan. Of course. That goes without saying.

He grins back. "Great, thanks, Rose." He scratches the back of his head now. "Sorry about that. A little nervous, I suppose. So – how does Friday sound to you?"

Since it's Monday now, Friday sounds perfect. "Yeah, sure," I tell him. "Sounds good to me."

"Great," he says again, "awesome. So I'll see you then, in the library? Well, we'll probably see each other before then, but – you get what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," I reply, holding back a chuckle. "I'll see you then. Goodnight, Lorcan."

"Goodnight, Rose," he says softly, smiling at me one last time before he turns around to walk to his common room. As always (when we're not fighting, of course), he walked me back to the Gryffindor common room, so I don't have such a long way to go.

This was, without a doubt, one of the best patrols ever.


	14. Neverending nosiness

Friday afternoon seems, to Lily and me, the perfect day to go on a cauldron hunt, also known as the Polyjuice Potion hunt. There are so many bathrooms in this castle and so many unused secret passages, so many deserted corridors and classrooms that they could literally be brewing it _anywhere_. Who knows, maybe they're doing it in the Ravenclaw boys' dorms. That would be bad, since we're not going to go in there yet another time. Last time's humiliation is still fresh in my mind.

Earlier today, my favourite trio came walking by, laughing in my face. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. So I hexed them, to which Al hexed me back. Fortunately, it was nothing Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix.

"Do you have any idea where we can even begin to look?" Lily asks, and I shake my head. "We don't have the Map either," she continues, "otherwise it would be easy finding them."

"But what if they weren't near the cauldron anyway?" I ask.

"Well, they'll have to return to that at some point in order to brew a potion," Lily points out, and I nod. Right, of course. I think that Al suspects us of nicking the Map from him every now and then, so he's now keeping it with him at all times. Or he wants to be safe and able to check the Map whenever he wants to.

"We could spy on them?" I propose, and since we have no other ideas (and I've grown rather fond of spying), we decide to do that.

For almost two hours, we silently follow Al's every move. We're not very lucky, since he keeps walking aimlessly through the castle – it must be one of his hobbies. Erin must, of course, know of this hobby, because her little adventures only take place after nightfall, and Albus never strolls the hallways then. I wonder what he's trying to accomplish by this activity, but let's not question it. That would involve explaining to Al how we've stalked him fruitlessly for two hours.

As we decide to leave him alone, Lily says, "Maybe we should've split up. Perhaps Malfoy and Scamander worked on the potion now."

"Lily," I say warningly, and she shuts up. This is really a bad timing for her to once again become my voice of reason.

An hour later, I'm in my dorm, stirring the cauldron and wondering if I have to recast the Disillusionment charm when I'm done. As I hear voices coming closer, I push the cauldron back under my bed. The problem is, now I'm sitting next to my bed – what kind of impression would that give off? I try to climb onto my bed and am lying on it only partly as Natasha and Francis come walking in.

"Rose?" Natasha asks, cocking her head to the side as if she'll understand what I'm doing then. "What are you doing?"

I smile fake-cheerily, hoping it's convincing enough. "Don't you know? This is the newest way of… relaxing."

"It doesn't look very relaxing to me," Francis observes. She walks around the bed so she can see my face from the front. "You don't look very relaxed."

"Could it have something to do with your potion?" Natasha asks innocently.

"Potion?" I almost yelp. "What potion? Where? I know nothing about a potion. Are you sure you're not mistaking me for a… potions-brewing person? Potions? Ha! They're so last year…"

"Rose," Natasha says simply, and that's enough for me to give in.

"Alright, alright," I say, climbing on my bed before my face hits the floor from surprise and shock. "What?"

"Your potion?" Francis asks, nodding at my bed. "What's it for?"

"For… Al. Yes, I'm brewing a potion for Al," I respond, not _really _lying.

"For Al? Your cousin Al?" Francis asks, looking at me weirdly. "The one you hate more than anyone else in this world?"

"Apart from Erin, of course," Natasha quickly adds. "That's a given."

"Uh – yeah," I say, trying to shrug it off. It doesn't work. Darn. "That's the one."

"Rose, why would you brew a potion for Albus if you hate him?" Francis asks, sounding much more strict all of a sudden.

"Well," I start, contemplating what the best way to put this is, "it's not really for Al, you know? I mean, it is, but I'm not brewing it on his orders, but he is going to drink it when it's done."

They share one look, and redirect their stares at me. "Elaborate," Natasha says, and I do, miraculously.

When I'm done, I look at both of them. "Well…" Francis says. "That sort of really sucks, Rose. What are you going to do?"

I point underneath my bed. "The potion? They're going to be chained to their seats while they tell me where my diary is, and then Lily will go and get it while I stay with them to make sure they don't get away."

"What do they even want with your diary?" Natasha asks, but I have no idea. It's a question I've asked myself lots of times, but I can't think of an answer. So I tell them a few of my own weird guesses.

"Maybe they think they can rule the world with what's in there. Maybe they're looking for some juicy gossip. Maybe they just want to annoy me."

"Sounds plausible," Francis says. "Not the first one, but the other two options sound good enough for me. Now, why can't you just summon it?"

I sigh and tell them that part of the story as well. "We'll keep our mouths shut," Natasha promises after I've told them every bit of it. "We won't tell anyone else. Can we help, though?"

"No, that's alright," I say, smiling. "Thanks, but I think I've got it under control. With Lily, of course."

"Good luck," Natasha mutters, and Francis rolls her eyes.

"Anyway, this is another good reason for us to prank Erin. What?" she adds as we both send her tired looks. "It's a good idea!"

After dinner, to which I brought my book bag in case I didn't have enough time to run back to my dorm afterwards, I hastily make my way to the library. I saw Lorcan leaving earlier and though we didn't set a time to meet, I hope I'm not too late for our study… session. Not a study date, as Natasha and Francis kept calling it during dinner. But where in the library is 'in the library'?

I slowly walk up and down the width of the library, looking around for a sign of Lorcan, but I don't see him. Turning my head so I can now see what's in front of me again, I almost jump.

"Hey, Rose," Lorcan says, smiling nervously. "I'm not late, am I?"

"No, you're not late," I reply quickly, staring at him, still shocked at his sudden appearance. "You're perfectly on time."

He nods, a small smile present on his (beautifully gorgeous) face. "Great. Now – uh… shall we find ourselves a table, then?"

"Yeah, sure," I reply. "Sounds good to me." Right. We're here to study, aren't we? So it would be necessary to find a table. Duh.

We work in silence for a while, only speaking when we read something odd or funny, or when we find something the other might find useful too. It's great to work with someone who's at the same level as I am – I don't think I know anyone else I could work with like this. Yes, the Ravenclaw girls, maybe. They're _too_ studious, though. I don't mind studious, but they are just about as bad as dad always tells me mum was about her schoolwork.

It's actually a miracle that I can even get work done with Lorcan so close to me.

We've been in the library for two hours when he asks, "Do you want to take a break?"

I look up; I'm in the middle of an essay, but a break sounds great at this point. "Yeah, why not?" I say, smiling. He starts gathering his stuff and I look at him confusedly. "Aren't we just taking a short break?" I ask.

"I thought we could go to the kitchens," he admits, blushing a little. "So I'm just going to take it all along – some people would do anything to not have to write an essay."

Nodding in understanding, I start putting my things in my bag as well. That's a good point he makes – as a matter of fact, I think Francis stole Al's essay once. But that was just to irk Erin, since she always copies his work. Now she couldn't.

Once we're in the kitchens and we've ordered some food, he asks, "Rose? Can I trust you?" He sends me a scrutinising look, his head slightly cocked to the side. Although I'm a little offended that he has to ask this, I'm flattered, I suppose, that he thinks I'm trustworthy. I am, of course, but the fact that he thinks I am is still a nice thing to hear.

"Of course, Lorcan," I manage to reply, smiling.

He smiles back and says, "I was wondering if we could talk about the… Erin situation once more. Without – yelling and wrong conclusions. Just to get it clear for us both what is going on."

I redden; after all, all the yelling and wrong conclusions were my doing. "That sounds like a good idea," I tell him. Then, an awkward silence follows. Looking his way after some twenty seconds, I see him staring right at me. As I cough, he breaks out of his trance.

"Right, thanks, Rose," he says. "So, do you want to start or should I do that?"

Seeing as I've made it pretty clear, these past few weeks, what I think has happened, I say, "You go first. If you don't mind, of course." It wouldn't hurt to hear what is really going on. No more assumptions that make no sense whatsoever.

"I don't mind," he tells me, "I wouldn't have offered if I did." I smile coyly at him; of course. Stupid comment number nine hundred seventy three. Not that I'm counting or anything.

"I know that you assume that I have personally been… involved with Erin," he starts, reddening a bit. "Or at least, you thought so not too long ago. I hoped that you didn't think that, because… well, that's not important now. It's just that, as I've told you before, I honestly don't like Erin. She's not a very nice girl, but I'm sure you know that too."

He looks up, maybe to check if I'm still listening, and I smile wryly. "Yeah, I know," I tell him. "And I'm sorry for thinking that."

He just nods. "I know. And I'm sorry for not telling you this earlier. Anyway, I've known she cheats on Al for months now. Ever since I first caught her in an empty classroom. I was foolish enough to interrupt and tell both of them off. I've never done that anymore afterwards." I can't really blame him for that. I usually walk away too whenever I catch Erin with a boy.

As he doesn't continue, I ask, "What happened then, that night you first caught her?"

He stares at me with a very serious expression on his face. "Lysander. I caught her with my brother." I can only gape at him. Lysander? "So naturally, I scolded Erin for cheating on her boyfriend – one of my best friends, and one of Lysander's as well – and then I dragged Lysander away from that room. Miranda and I split up during rounds, so she wasn't there." So did Richard and I; otherwise, Richard would've known about Erin much earlier.

"And then?" I breathe as he stops speaking again. "I mean, it must be – "

"I flipped once we arrived in our dorm. I told Lysander that he was an idiot and a traitor and – well, many other things I'm not going to repeat here. And he agreed." Lorcan shakes his head. "He _agreed_. He said that he was sorry and he pleaded and begged me not to tell Al. Said he didn't mean to, that Erin was just so… persuasive. That he wasn't the first. Then I told him that the others, most likely, weren't Al's best friends. I think that's when he started to think that I was going to tell Al and… I was planning to. So Lysander started berating _me_ that I was about to betray _him_, my brother, my twin."

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. It's obviously hard for him to talk about this, and rightly so. It is a rotten situation for him. Wordlessly, I take his hand and give it a squeeze – something I would never do under any circumstances. I'm surprising myself with this (for me) bold move. "Hey," I say softly, ignoring the obnoxiously loud beating of my heart. "It'll be fine. I'm sure it'll work out in the end."

"I hope so," he says dully, but he's smiling a little nonetheless.

"So what did you do then?" I ask curiously.

"I went to bed," he simply responds. "I hardly slept that night. The next morning, as I walked to breakfast by myself, Erin appeared out of nowhere. She wanted to know what Lysander had said and what I was going to do. I first told her that was none of her business, that I could very well decide for myself what I was going to do, but she didn't agree with that."

"What did she do?" I ask, before realising that he must've been about to tell me that. "Oh, sorry."

He chuckles before speaking again. "She said that she could do whatever she wanted and I had no right to tell her off for having some fun. And that I was supposed to support my brother, no matter what he'd done. So I asked her what she knew about that, and she started being vicious again. Sure, she just threatened to curse me if I'd tell… that was about the worst it got."

"That's… surprising," I say. He nods.

"That's what I thought too. Lysander, of course, continued bugging me about it for the next week, until I told him I wouldn't tell Al if he'd leave me alone and wouldn't do it again."

"And he didn't?" I ask, and he shakes his head.

"Not as far as I'm aware. I hope he learned his lesson now."

"Was that why you told me that family should stick together?" I ask, suddenly remembering what he said the first time we talked about this… Erin situation during rounds. "That they should stick up for each other when one of them was in trouble?"

"Yeah, I think it was," he says quietly. "Only later I reached the conclusion that I must've sounded just like Lysander after I caught him. And that telling you that might result in you telling Al, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid."

I nod slowly. "Good thing Al and I aren't quite as good friends anymore as you and Lysander are, right?" I say lamely. "I mean, I never told him, so… that's good, isn't it?"

"I guess," Lorcan replies wearily. "I just feel so guilty for not telling him. Half the school knows by now, I'm sure of it, and nobody feels compelled to tell him."

Suddenly realising we're still holding hands, I squeeze his hand again before letting go. "I know," I say. "Maybe the truth will come out soon anyway." Because if I can slip Erin some of our truth serum as well, she would tell Al everything. Probably. "Thanks for telling me," I add, remembering that last week, he couldn't tell me what was going on because he promised a friend. "It means a lot."

He smiles weakly. "I wanted to get rid of all our misunderstandings lately. It's… not been pleasant."

"I agree; it hasn't really, has it?"

He nods. "And your side of the story?" He eyes me curiously, and I redden again.

"Well, I suppose you already know that, don't you? You didn't want to tell Al, so I supposed that you must've been… involved with Erin as well at some point. I hated the thought of that because I – hate Erin. And you were acting so mysteriously so I didn't think there'd be another option. Until you said that thing about the promise, but I still didn't see the link. Obviously."

"You just should've trusted me," he tells me, attempting to smile.

I even manage a smirk. "And _you_ should've just trusted _me_," I say, earning a light shove, and I laugh.

"Maybe we should go," he informs me, glancing at his watch. "I think it's no use going back to the library, but I was done for the most part anyway. You?"

Thinking of my half-finished (final) essay, I nod. "Yeah, me too."

I don't realise it immediately, but Lorcan walks me back to my common room again. I smile to myself; he's so sweet and kind and perfect, such a gentleman. It is rather quiet, though, since we're not talking, and I wonder what's wrong.

As I glance at his face, I notice that he's frowning and muttering to himself, and he seems conflicted. We arrive at the Fat Lady's portrait (she's asleep already, the lazy painting) and if I didn't grab his arm, he would've walked headfirst into it. Without opening it first. "We're here," I tell him, as he looks up, a little disturbed. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no. Nothing's wrong," he says, smiling broadly. Wow, he's a pretty bad actor. That smile looks faker than Erin.

"Okay," I say, still having my doubts. "Well, then. Uh – I had fun tonight, and it was… nice, working with you like that, so… thanks for the invite. So – I'll just go in then and – "

"Wait!" he exclaims all of a sudden, and I think I even jumped. "I – had a good time too, Rose, working with you tonight." I swear, my name sounds a thousand times better than usual when it comes out of _his_ mouth. "So… maybe we could do this again? But – without the studying part."

Alright, I'm a little confused now. "A study session without the studying part?" I ask, a little stupidly perhaps.

He seems to be getting more and more nervous every second now. "I thought that maybe we could – you know – go to… Hogsmeade together some time?" he finally blurts out, and I stare at him in shock. Someone, please pinch me, because I think I'm dreaming. A wonderful dream. If there's nobody around to pinch me, I'm fine with that too.

"That sounds great," I manage to say, without even struggling too much to get the words out. Hopefully I'm not staring at him with too much admiration and fan girl-ness. That might scare him off.

He grins widely at this, and before I know it, I'm grinning too. "Fantastic," he says. "Awesome."

"Are you sure, though?" Of course, my mouth has to ruin it all. "Even after that slap?"

He stares at me in wonder. "I'm sure you had your reasons," he replies, shrugging. "So I'll see you around, right? I – uh… goodnight, Rose."

"Goodnight, Lorcan," I almost whisper, and with one last smile, he leaves and I watch him go.

"Are you going to give me the password or not?" I turn around and see, to my horror, that the Fat Lady has woken up. After quickly telling her the password, I run through the common room, straight to my dorm. Falling onto my bed with a silly smile, I still can't believe what happened. This is so wonderful, it's indescribable. Yes, we've known each other forever and we have lots and lots of memories together, but this is something entirely different. This is, there is no other word possible, a _date_. A Hogsmeade date. I turn around on my bed and squeal into my pillow. Oh, I'll have some sweet dreams tonight.


	15. Will and a way

"Rose!" I almost jump as I'm being approached from behind.

"Will!" I exclaim, noticing who it is. "What's wrong?" My heart is beating rapidly in my chest. People should really learn not to try to get my attention this way.

"Not here," he hisses. He promptly drags me out of the library without giving me the chance to gather all my stuff. I'll kill him if it's gone when I get back here. In a corridor near the library, he halts. Before I have the chance to ask him what's wrong, he asks, still in that same hissing tone, "What were you thinking? What did you do?"

"What are you talking about?" I ask, perplexed. As far as I'm aware, I haven't done anything lately that could somehow have consequences for Will.

"Natasha," he hisses. "She keeps avoiding me all of a sudden. What did you tell her?"

"I didn't tell her anything!" I tell him. Why would he think that?

"She knows," Will says, in a slightly more normal voice now. "She knows I like her. She has to know. Why else would she be acting like this?"

"I don't remember talking about you at all," I say truthfully. "Not to Natasha, at least."

"To Francis, then?" he asks. As I nod, he sighs. "And did you forget to tell her not to tell Natasha I like her?"

I think for a moment, before concluding that I might indeed have forgotten to do that. "I might've," I admit in a small voice. "Sorry."

He shakes his head. "That's not really helping now, Rose." He sighs again, running a hand through his hair. "Why didn't you tell Francis that? What am I supposed to do now?"

"I forgot," I repeat feebly. "I'm really sorry."

"What do I do now?" he asks again.

"Well," I say, trying to think quickly, but failing miserably, "since she avoids you now that she knows how you feel… don't stalk her? Just act like you usually do. Pretend that you don't realise what she's doing."

He doesn't appear very convinced that this is the right thing to do (I'm not too sure either). Shrugging, he says, "If you think so, Rose."

I smile apologetically. "I'll talk to Francis about this, Will. Perhaps we'll even have to talk to Natasha, but I'll let you know how that goes."

"Thanks, Rose," he says, but I can see that he's still not happy with what happened. "I'll see you later then, I suppose." Without another word, he turns around and leaves. I lean against the wall, wondering how _this_ happened. Francis is an idiot; she could've known that nothing good would come from it if she told Natasha.

I'm about to walk back to the common room as well when I remember that my books and my latest essay are still in the library. Sprinting back, I almost run down Madam Pince, but my stuff is still where I left it. I quickly throw it all in my bag (that's still lying there as well), and get out of the library again, before I'll be _thrown_ out.

Arriving in the common room, I don't spot Natasha or Francis, but they're probably upstairs for some reason. Al (who is here, in his own common room, for a change!) spots me, though, and comes walking my way, his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. Well, that means trouble.

"I really don't have time for you now, Al," I call as there's still a great distance between us.

He stands still and puts up his hands in defence. His smirk doesn't leave, though. "Alright, alright," he says mockingly. "I just thought I'd give you some… information that might interest you, but if you're in a hurry…"

Now I'm burning to know what he's talking about. Damn it. He knows me too well. "What is it, Al?" I ask, trying to sound bored. "Keep it short, I have an emergency at hand."

He licks his lips, probably thinking how to say what he wants to say. Preferably in a way that'll irk me most. "I just though you might want to know… you and Lily should never consider becoming a spy of sorts. You'd be way too obvious." Uh, what? "Don't think I didn't notice you there, spying on me for reasons I cannot even fathom."

Well, at least he doesn't know about that time when I overheard them talking about the Polyjuice Potion. Not that that matters so much, now. I scowl at my cousin. "I think you know well enough why we were doing that, Albus," I spat, and he looks thoughtful for a moment. Or maybe he didn't know. He's about to find out, then.

"Fill me in then, Rosie," he says sweetly, and my scowl deepens.

Throwing all caution in the wind, I say, "Two words, Al: Polyjuice Potion. Ring any bells?"

He looks genuinely surprised now. I don't know what he thought we were doing, but that wasn't among the possibilities, it seems. "How do you know about that?" he asks. He tries to sound confident, but there's a hint of nervousness in his voice he can't completely hide away.

Now it's my turn to smirk. "The walls have ears, dear cousin. Especially in this castle."

His face darkens. "So you know what we're planning. So what? You can't stop us anyway."

"That's what you think," I tell him quietly, even though we have no idea how to stop them indeed. I think he knows this. We grew up together, after all. We almost read each other like books.

"Oh really?" he asks, his voice mocking again. "Well then, Rose. Go right ahead and look for our cauldron. You won't find it. Go ahead, I dare you."

I narrow my eyes. "Challenge taken, Al. Go ahead and cower under your bed, because I _will_ find that potion. I _will_ get my diary back. I can promise you that much."

"You do know that you have to stick to your promises, don't you?" he asks calmly – his voice is shaking a little, though. "I can tell you now that you won't succeed in either. You might as well give up now, Rosie. You're fighting a lost battle."

"We'll see about that," I say in an even calmer voice than his. "Now if you'll excuse me – I have other things to do than talk to my overly annoying cousin. I'll find your cauldron – and my diary – later. You can't do much now anyway." With a triumphant grin, I leave him standing there. I know I didn't exactly win this round, but I didn't lose it either.

It seems that I was right about one thing – Natasha and Francis are upstairs. I take one look at Natasha, and I can conclude (from her nervous demeanour) that she, indeed, has heard about Will.

"Francis," I say, trying to sound at least a little strict, "can I talk to you for a moment?"

Seemingly suspecting nothing, Francis follows me out. I drag her downstairs again, towards the furthest corner of the common room. "What's wrong, Rose?" she asks. "What happened now?"

Through clenched teeth, I tell her, "You weren't supposed to tell Natasha that Will likes her. Why did you tell her that?"

"You never said I couldn't tell her," Francis says, and though I know she's right, it's still frustrating.

"That's called common sense, Francis," I say, perhaps too roughly. "I thought you'd realise that Will might not want his secret spilled. Least of all to Natasha herself."

She shrugs. "I don't see why not. At least he knows how she feels about him now."

I sigh at her words. "Yes, she doesn't like him like that. Who knows what she's going to do now. She might even cancel the date, while that date was the perfect opportunity for Will to get her to change her mind about him."

"Maybe you're right," Francis admits. "I know it's not the most positive outcome of all. I mean – yeah, she could've screamed, but she's avoiding him now. I didn't think she'd react like that. I thought she'd take it better. But still, you should've told me not to say anything to Tash."

"I know," I say. "I didn't realise that I hadn't said anything about that. What did she say, by the way?"

"She's avoiding him now," Francis repeats. "She's not taking it very well. She's a little creeped out. At the same time, though, she says it's not true. She doesn't believe that he likes her like that." That's odd.

"Is she afraid that it'll ruin her chances with Mark?" I ask. After all, if Will likes her, she might think that Mark might not want to date her because he doesn't want to do that to his friend. I don't think Mark will pay much attention to that, though.

"Who knows," Francis replies. "Anyway, she's also still convinced that it's a ploy to get Mark to like her." She shakes her head as if she wants to say, 'Completely loony, that girl'.

"Should we talk to her?" I ask. "Tell her that it's not a farce, but that it's real?" No matter how long she's going to deny it, her denial won't make it go away.

"We should," Francis says. "Now?"

I think about Al and his… invitation. However tempting it is to go on another cauldron hunt, I think this should be done first. "Yeah," I say. "Let's do this now."

Natasha is still sitting on her bed when we enter the dorm, so we join her there. "Can we talk to you for a moment?" Francis asks her, and Natasha shakes her head firmly. She must already know what we want to talk about, and she probably doesn't like that thought.

"Fine, then," I say, and she looks at me in disbelief. "We're going to talk to you, whether you want to or not."

"Exactly," Francis backs me up. "So don't even think about fleeing. Let's talk about… Will. Don't you want to talk about Will, Rose?"

I grin. "I'd love to, Francis. Natasha, tell us all about Will."

She groans. "What's there to tell?"

"Tash, love, you're starting to sound like Rose whenever something is wrong between her and Lorcan." I roll my eyes as Francis says this. So not true.

"I know," Natasha groans in reply, and she buries her head in her pillow. I cross my arms, offended. Francis laughs at this.

"Good, so behave. You might just provide the right example for Rose."

"Fine," Natasha says, her voice muffled by her pillow. Then, she looks up again. "What about Will?"

"He likes you," I tell her, even though she already knew this, of course. "And now you're avoiding him. That's not exactly a nice thing to do."

"He doesn't like me," Natasha mutters. "He's just helping me out."

"He really wants to go on that date with you," I say. "He's doing this because he likes you, unlike Mark."

Hearing this seems to sting Natasha, but it's the truth. "No, he doesn't like me," she repeats.

"Then why are you avoiding him?" Francis counters, and Natasha is lost for words for a moment.

"I'm not avoiding him," she oh-so-cleverly replies.

"Yes, you are," Francis says.

I add, "Even Will himself figured that out."

"He told you that?" Natasha almost yelps. "When?"

"I don't know. Not even an hour ago, I think. Why?" I ask her. "Did you really think that someone who likes you, fancies you, wouldn't notice if you started avoiding them?"

Francis snorts. "Rose knows all about that," she tells Natasha, who smiles a little at this. I honestly don't know why they feel the need to keep on cracking jokes about me. I'm not liking this at all.

"What should I do?" Natasha asks. "I mean, if I go to Hogsmeade with him, he might expect something of it."

"No, he won't," Francis sooths her. "Rose made sure of that."

Natasha sends me a calculating glance. "I don't think I want to know those details," she says. "Or maybe he wants to talk about… his feelings for me."

"Boys don't like to talk about their feelings," Francis informs Natasha (and indirectly, me as well). "So I doubt he'll want to do that. Make it clear to him that you don't like him that way – if you really, _really_ don't – but don't go gushing over how 'hot' Mark might be whenever he walks by. Blokes have feelings too, even though they don't want to talk about them."

"I hope I can do that," Natasha says. "But I still don't really think Will likes me."

"Trust us, he does," I say. "It'll probably break his heart if you keep talking about how much you like Mark. I really don't know what you see in him. He's awful. He has a bad taste in women. Girls, I mean."

"Perhaps," Natasha replies softly. She's probably still hoping that she'll be able to change him. "Alright, we'll see what happens. I'll see what I'm going to do. I'll try to… stop avoiding him."

Well, it's better than nothing, right?

"So, Rose," Francis starts, smirking, "what's going on with Lorcan lately? Any improvement on your situation?"

I'm literally unable to keep a grin off of my face, and Francis raises an eyebrow. "Definitely some improvement," Natasha concludes, changing from a moping girl into a gossip queen in only a couple of seconds. It's strange that they're only asking now – I floated on air the entire weekend, not entirely here. Surely they must've noticed that?

"Uh – yeah, I guess you could call it improvement," I say, still smiling like mad. I quickly tell them about the study session and our talk in the kitchens afterwards, without giving away too many details. I'm trustworthy, after all. If their grins are anything to go by, they're very happy as well.

"And now?" Francis asks, with a hungry gleam in her eyes. "What's your next move?"

"My next move?" I ask. "What are you talking about?"

"Something interesting is bound to happen now," Natasha says. "I mean, you carried him around when he was a frog, yelled at him, stared at him, slapped him, studied him and studied with him, and now you had this… talk. What's next? Are you going to feed him to the Squid? Are you going to snog him behind the greenhouses? Are you going to jump off of the Astronomy Tower? Are you – "

"I think she gets the point," Francis interrupts Natasha's rant, but not entirely – Natasha keeps muttering insane stuff.

I know exactly what my answer is; it's crystal clear. I'm just a bit hesitant saying it out loud, what with Natasha and those two boys. Her love life is far from perfect, and although I have no idea what exactly Lorcan intends to do in Hogsmeade, at least we're going there together.

"So?" Francis asks, the hungry gleam returning. I glance at Natasha for a second, but she seems as eager as Francis. Well, if they're sure about it.

I mutter the answer under my breath, so of course, they don't hear it correctly. As I repeat the answer, a little louder, Natasha starts squealing. As if that wasn't bad enough, Francis starts yelling at the top of her lungs. I'm sure the whole castle, and maybe the people who live in Hogsmeade, heard that.

Planning to place a spell on this room so no sound gets out, I take out my wand. Natasha and Francis don't notice this, so I choose another approach: I silence _them_. They don't appear to appreciate that a lot.

"Anyway," I say, "as I was saying – yes, he asked me to Hogsmeade, but it's probably nothing. Something friends do, you know? No need to wake up the unicorns in the forest for that."

They look murderous by now, so I quickly hop off of the bed and walk across the room. It doesn't work; they're following me.

Pointing my wand at them, I ask, in a hopefully very threatening tone, "If I give you your voices back, do you promise not to attack me nor to start screaming again?"

They roll their eyes, and since they can't speak, I'll take that as a yes. With one flick of my wand, they're making sounds again.

"Why can't Lorcan like you?" Natasha asks. "Weren't you the one who's trying to convince me that Will likes me and that that's the reason why he asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him?"

"Yes," I say feebly. "But that's because he told me. Not all blokes have the same motive to ask a girl to Hogsmeade."

Francis snorts. She does that an awful lot lately. "Oh, Rose. They do, trust me."

I'm still spluttering. That's impossible, no? I just came to terms with the fact that I'll probably have to keep admiring Lorcan from a distance forever. We've known each other since we were born. He can't suddenly be seeing me in a new light, right?

Never mind that – I've seen him in a different light for almost two years now, so I guess it's possible, just not… likely. How big are the chances that if I start fancying him after so many years, he'll fancy me back? Not big, I'll tell you that. Especially after I slapped him. That can't be very attractive.

Studying the two of us, Francis shakes her head. "You two are absolutely hopeless. I am so glad that there are no boys in my life I have to worry about." With that, she leaves us to wonder about what she just said.

"Should we get suspicious?" I ask Natasha, while Francis' footsteps are still heading downstairs.

We sit in silence for a bit, share one glance, and chorus, "Nah." Francis can tell us whenever she feels ready. If there's anything to tell, of course.

~~o~~

"Al saw us?" Lily looks at me oddly. "How? We were perfectly inconspicuous!"

"Apparently not," I say, playing with a rare slice of bread at the dinner table. "He noticed us spying on him."

"Does he know why we were spying on him?" Lily asks. She sounds as if she knows the answer already.

"He might," I reply, and she sighs. "He was surprised, though," I add lamely. "And it doesn't matter. We'll find that cauldron and empty it. Then we'll find my diary and everything is alright."

"They'll protect the cauldron much better now that they know we're looking for it," Lily points out, and I know she's right. I figured that out myself already.

We think for a moment. There has to be something we can do, no? "So," I say, when Lily doesn't make a sound, "do you think we shouldn't look for the cauldron?"

"Yeah," she says. "Actually, I think that's the best idea. They're probably brewing it in the Ravenclaw dorms anyway."

"And we're not going to try that again," I say, and Lily, I know, agrees with that.

"We could fly there," she says. It's our only shot, but there is a small problem.

"I can't fly, Lily, remember?"

"Right," she says sheepishly. Lily herself isn't very fond of flying either. We're huge disappointments to our parents in that respect, I'll tell you that much. "Anyway, then we won't look for the cauldron." She looks around, to see if Al is around, most likely, and she leans across the table. "We'll just follow Al every now and then – or one of his partners in crime – to make them think we haven't given up. We could let them overhear us talking about how the cauldron is not in this classroom or that passage. Make them suspicious and paranoid."

I grin. I'm almost inclined to cackle evilly, but there's so many people around – their combined forces will make sure I'll end up in the Hospital Wing with no hope of getting out before the end of the term. "It won't get me my diary back, though," I say, the thought suddenly occurring to me. I shrug. "Oh well, it'll be fun anyway."

"Besides, you'll have your diary back soon enough," Lily says. "How is the you-know-what doing?"

After glancing around, I reply quietly, "Great. It should be ready in a week and a half." Lily gives me the thumbs up, but before she can say anything, a shadow looms over me. That's never a good sign.

"Weasley," the voice belonging to the shadow says. It doesn't sound like a pleasant voice. Then, the shadow disappears, but the person previously casting it sits down next to me. "Potter," Erin continues, shooting Lily a dirty look. Since Lily is Erin's boyfriend's sister, I would've expected her to be at least a little nicer to her, but it seems that Al is the only person in our family whom Erin actually likes. Or deems useful.

"Vane," Lily says, sounding bored. She stares down at her nails – something she never does – and asks, "What do you want?"

"For you to get lost," Erin says rudely, and Lily raises an eyebrow at her, while still inspecting her nails.

"I was here before you were, Vane," she replies, and I swear, Erin looks ready to explode.

"Fine then. Weasley, let's go."

"Why would she want to go with _you_?" Lily asks, laughing to herself.

"Why would she want to stay with _you_?" Erin counters, and now I laugh out loud.

"Because I prefer Lily's company over yours," I say. Erin probably saw this coming – she would've been stupid if she didn't – for she now turns to me.

She smirks evilly and glances at the Ravenclaw table long enough for me to realise that she's giving me a hint of sorts. As she turns back to me, she says, in a low voice, "You'd better come, Weasley. Who knows what might happen if you don't."

"Stop being so dramatic, Vane," Lily comments from across the table, and I stifle a giggle at this.

"Shut up, Potter, I wasn't talking to you," Erin snaps. "Wait till I find some dirt on you, you little pest."

"Go right ahead, Vane," Lily says, still sounding bored. She must really teach me how to do that. "I'm sure mum and dad will love you then, whenever Al decides to introduce you to them."

Oh, imagine that. Erin looks uncomfortable now; it _is_ her weak spot, after all. She adores the Potter family – well, their name, fame, and fortune, that is, not necessarily the members of the family. I think it's something she inherited from her mother.

Lily gives her a triumphant smirk, but Erin isn't looking at Lily anymore. She obviously decided that I'm an easier target. Unfortunately, she may be right. "Weasley," she says. "You do remember that I know… something about you that's supposed to be a secret, right?"

Darn. I was hoping that she'd forgotten about that. Lily is talking to one of her dorm mates – where did she come from? – so she's not paying attention. Good. "What do you want?" I ask grumpily.

"I'm not discussing that here," Erin informs me. Just my bloody luck. "Although – it doesn't really matter. I know what you discussed in the kitchens a couple of days ago with a certain… immensely annoying Ravenclaw know-it-all."

I'm about to protest, but then I think of something. "How do you know?" I ask curiously.

"Apparently, he had a chummy little talk with his brother about the whole evening later on, who couldn't help but tell me."

Great. Wonderful. Okay, I can imagine Lorcan feeling the need to tell Lysander that he told me about what happened, but he didn't have to go over the entire night!

"What, Weasley?" she asks, apparently surprised that I'm not saying anything. "Did something else happen that night?" She pulls a face. "I'd rather not know, thank you." That's surprising too. I would've thought she would jump at every opportunity to make my life miserable.

"Nothing at all," I tell her, but she doesn't seem to fully believe me. Oh well. "Anyway, yes. Yes, he did. I know what happened."

"Now, you weren't planning on telling your cousin, were you?" she asks sweetly. She really can't pull that off. How does Al fall for that? She's the worst actress I've ever seen.

"How are you so sure?" I ask innocently. Of course, I know why she thinks she's winning, but it's nice to irk her a little more.

"That same immensely annoying Ravenclaw know-it-all," is all she needs to say.

"He's not an immensely annoying know-it-all," I mutter now.

"You know who I'm talking about, don't you?"

I sigh, pretending to think. I could ask her how she knows I still like him, but that's too risky here. Who knows who might overhear this conversation – not something I'd like to find out. "I don't understand why you even need to ask," I say, suddenly irritated. "He told me that because he knew I wouldn't tell Al. The cousin who wouldn't even believe me on this if it was the last thing I'd tell him before dying."

She smiles. "Just checking." With that, she stands up again and flaunts away; fortunately, not towards the Ravenclaw table. If I'd ever have to go to Azkaban, please let it be for murdering her.

Shortly afterwards, Lily's friend leaves as well, and Lily asks me, "What did she want?"

"Nothing important," I reply.

Lily hits the table with her fist. "That reminds me, dad sent me these the other day." She carefully takes two similar objects out of her pocket and lays them down at the table.

"Mirrors?" I ask, but then I recognise them. Not just mirrors – two way mirrors. "I mean, cool."

"Dad had one of those when he was in school," Lily says, but I already know that story. "He managed to find another set for us to use. They might come in handy."

"For what?" I ask. I don't know if our plan contains a part in which we could use these mirrors.

"We could use them when we're both tailing someone else," Lily makes up on the spot. Okay, alright – she probably came up with that reason before this talk. "Besides, we still don't know how we're going to execute the plan. We're going to feed them the potion – but how, when, where? Do you want to go through with the plan to tie them down and force-feed them the potion?"

"No, I think we need another plan, actually." My brain is working overtime. "We could feed them the potion at breakfast," I say slowly. "I'll make sure the potion's in their goblets, and you can tell me when they're coming down. It's only… ten days before it's done."

"Breakfast?" Lily asks. "With a whole day ahead of them?"

"I'm sure they can deal with it," I say, waving her concern away. "It would be funny to see them answer every question they're asked truthfully." _So many possibilities._

"How do you know which goblets are theirs, though?" Lily asks, and we look at the Ravenclaw table.

"They're always sitting at the exact same spots," I reply. "Breakfast, lunch, diner. Always."

"They do, don't they?" Lily pulls a face. "They're making this very easy for us." I catch her eye and we grin. This'll be great. "Do you want to stay around, though?" Lily asks. "I mean, they'll surely know something's up if you do."

I shrug. "They'll have to answer my questions anyway."

"True," she says. "Well, we'll talk this over some other time, yeah? I just promised Leah I'd be in the library as soon as possible, so I'm going to run. Bye Rose!"

I give her a small wave and she's gone. Sitting deep in thought for another while, I almost miss the boys from our year walk by and sit down further down the table. It's odd, to me at least, how Will can still stand being around Mark. Must be loyalty towards friends, I suppose. But still. Mark looks exceptionally smug tonight, and Will looks quite the opposite. My guts are telling me to find Natasha and find out the reason. It cannot be good.

~~o~~

And it isn't. It's not good at all. Mark asked Natasha to help him with some or other essay tonight, in a tone, Francis tells me, that implied that so much more could happen. Natasha was almost drooling at the sight of him – that's a little over the top, no? – which is probably the reason why the boys looked the way they did. Because yes, according to Francis, Will was there to witness the scene. I really feel sorry for him.

Francis, though, made sure Natasha wouldn't do anything stupid – like falling for Mark's trick that easily – by saying that Natasha was helping _her_ tonight. Needless to say, Natasha is sulking in our dorm right now. Our mission has suddenly become a lot harder, because Natasha can now claim that Mark _is_ interested in her, even though he probably isn't. He's just looking for a quick snog, or, who knows, a quick shag. Disgusting.

This morning, I received a note from the two Heads, telling me that, once again, Prefect rounds have been switched around. That means I have to wait two more days before another patrol, but now I can stay here tonight to figure out what to do next.

It's about time someone knocks some sense into that boy while, preferably, knocking him out cold at the same time. I'm not sure if that's really a good and logical idea, but at least it's an idea, right?

Mark is going down the next time I see him… out of class, of course.


	16. Obvious obstacles

**A/N**: So this story gets weirder every chapter... oh well. Hopefully you still enjoy it :)

* * *

"Will?"

No reply comes. I don't know if he's purposefully ignoring me or if he's just so heart-broken that he's lost and away in his own world, drowning himself in his own misery.

"Will."

"Leave me alone, Rose." Okay, so he doesn't want to talk to me.

"Will," I say for the third time, standing right in front of him with my hands on my hips. "Will. I'm not going to leave you alone before you talk to me."

"I don't want to talk to you," he replies unhappily. "I don't want to talk to anyone."

"Depression doesn't suit you, Will," I tell him, even though I have no idea whether or not that's true. I don't know him that well, after all. "Snap out of it."

"Easy for you to say," he mutters. I briefly contemplate slapping him across the face, but if word gets out that I slapped two boys in such a short time-span, that can't be good for my reputation at this school.

"Will," I repeat _again_. "Fine, if you don't want to talk, then don't talk. I'll do the talking, you do the listening." This sounds rather familiar – I seem to use this method a lot. He doesn't speak, he doesn't move, so I guess he has no issues with this approach. "Again, I'm sorry. I didn't know Francis would tell Natasha." I sigh. "And I didn't know she had it this bad, Will. Just… don't give up, alright?" Not exactly what I had been planning on saying, but maybe it'll do.

"Why not?" he asks. "She's proven by now that she doesn't like me. All she wants is Mark. He can have her for all I care."

"Of course you care," I tell him. "And, come on, are you going to give up that easily? Just tell Mark how you feel about her, tell her to leave her alone."

"He wouldn't listen anyway," Will mutters. He doesn't seem capable of talking normally today.

"Then he's a bad friend," I conclude. "Anyway, Will, so I talked to Francis and she thinks you should just do whatever you think is best as well. You're the best judge of that. Yes, we would love it if you didn't give up now, but we can't force you to do one thing or another, that's up to you to decide."

"What _is_ the best thing to do in this situation?" he asks, sounding rather depressed.

"I have no idea," I confess. I mean, the only way for Will to prove to Natasha how he feels and maybe, _maybe_ making her like him as well is taking her out. If I were Will though, I would feel terribly discouraged by this situation as well. "I could… try to talk to Natasha again, perhaps?"

"I'm not sure if that will help all that much," Will mumbles. "But if you think it will, go right ahead. I'll – think about it." I nod and he sighs. "Could you leave now? I talked to you, didn't I?"

Rolling my eyes, I stand up. "As you wish." It's time for me to go find a certain friend of Will's anyway. He's in for it. Oh, he certainly is in for it. In for what, I have yet to decide, but it won't be pretty. One can hope, right?

Before I've figured out what will happen to Mark when I see him next, I walk headfirst into him. Well, what a surprise. A very unpleasant surprise. I'll just have to improvise, then.

"You," I hiss, and he seems taken aback at my tone. We've never talked a lot, we hardly know each other – if circumstances were different, I'd be surprised at my tone as well. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

He looks around and then back to me. I'm almost a foot shorter than he is and I'm sure the index finger I'm pointing at him doesn't look very threatening either. "I'm… standing here, enjoying a free afternoon?" I narrow my eyes, and he nods in understanding (either he's very thick or he enjoys getting on people's nerves). "Oh, I think I know what you're referring to…"

"Took you long enough," I say, no longer hissing. Hissing reminds me of snakes, and snakes remind me of Slytherins. Perhaps I should roar at him instead…

"Let me guess, you want me to leave Natasha alone?" he asks, knowing fully well that that's exactly what I want. "Give me one good reason."

Oh, now he's making it _very_ easy for me. "She's my friend, and you're just going to use her because she likes you." He seems shocked for a moment – he probably didn't know I know this. "Because Erin is still a _little_ bit out of reach for you. Which brings me to my second reason – Al _will_ find out about her little escapades, and he will not be happy with you. And believe me, you don't want to be around when he is _really_ unhappy." Bad memories. Bad, bad memories. "Thirdly, one of _your_ friends actually likes Natasha. Would you really do that to him?"

He is silent for a second. And for another second. After a minute, I start to impatiently tap my foot on the floor. Surely he can't be this surprised?

"Just mind your own business, Weasley," he says in the end, attempting to brush past me. Oh no he didn't.

I whip out my wand and say, "Don't even _think_ about it."

He puts up his hands in surrender. "Alright Weasley, if it's so important to you, I'll leave your precious little friend alone. Not for you – for Will." Huh? He _knows_? He actually _knows_ about Will liking Natasha and yet he –

He truly is the worst friend I've ever met. He's not even making sense – he promises to leave Natasha alone if it's so important to me, but not for me, but for Will? What's that supposed to mean?

"Yes, I know, Weasley," he says. "I was told by Richard last night, if you wanted to know." Oh, well, that explains it. "And thank you for your warning – I'll place wards around my bed at night so your cousin won't kill me in my sleep." After that mocking final comment, he leaves. I stay where I am, rooted to the spot. What the hell just happened?

Natasha will kill me for telling Mark to stay away from her. But who knows, maybe he was planning on doing that anyway, since he knew about Will. If Natasha finds out about that, she'll blame Will for keeping Mark away. That cannot happen. That scenario must be avoided at all costs. If she asks, I did it. Not Will. Not Richard.

Perhaps I could find a way to blame it all on Erin though. That shouldn't be too hard – everything is Erin's fault nowadays. Besides, Natasha (and Francis, and I) will probably jump at the opportunity to kill (or simply just harm) Erin. Grinning to myself, I continue on my merry way to Merlin-knows-where.

A day later, everything seems relatively normal. Only relatively – at Hogwarts, things are never normal. Will and Mark seem to be on speaking terms (or rather, Will is talking again without having to be forced into doing that), Francis and Natasha go for a walk around the castle just to find out how long it'll take them, and Lily and Hugo are clawing each other's eyes out – figuratively speaking.

I'm in the library (gee, surprise!), working on a Herbology essay, as someone calls me. I look up and see that it's Richard. Right. I've never really talked to him either – as I've said before, we split up during rounds.

"What is it?" I whisper. "I'm busy."

"I know," he whispers back. "Just so you know, Will and Mark are talking again."

"I know," I copy him. "I noticed that at lunch."

"I mean," Richard continues as if I didn't say a thing, "I told Mark about Will and then they talked and stuff…"

"I know," I repeat. Is he going to tell me something I don't know yet?

"Right…" he says. "I forgot that you… talked to Mark as well yesterday. I think Will is out for your blood now, though." So will Natasha when she finds out. Well. At least they'll have one thing in common then.

"Why?" I ask. "I was only trying to help."

"I don't know," Richard says. "He just didn't look very happy when Mark mentioned you. Perhaps you should mind your own business next time. Anyway, I'll leave you alone now."

And he's gone. Stupid prat. Why doesn't _he_ mind his own business? Now I'm glad we never even _tried_ walking rounds together. It would've been torture. I feel bad for the person who has to put up with him now. And Will is out for my blood? Possibly, so I'll stay out of his way for the next… day, at least. If I keep my wand with me at all times, I should be safe enough.

It's also Thursday today, and with the new schedules, this means that I have Prefect patrols today. I'm ridiculously happy about this, and I have a rather difficult time keeping control over myself. Lorcan doesn't seem to notice, fortunately – he's just staring ahead of us with a silly grin on his face. He looks positively entrancing now, and he doesn't even have to do anything to accomplish that.

We walk in a companionable silence for a while before Lorcan, once more, breaks it. "So, Rose, have you done anything interesting lately?"

I think for a moment. The only remotely interesting thing I can think of is the potion, but I can't tell him that, of course. "No, not really," I reply. "You?"

A few seconds pass before he replies. "Me neither." He takes a deep breath and scrutinises me closely. "Do you want to take that corridor?" he asks.

I look at the corridor he's indicating – it's completely dark and it doesn't look very welcoming. "Preferably not," I tell him.

He looks as if he's about to protest, but he doesn't in the end. "Okay," he says. There's something strange hanging in the air all of a sudden – I can't place it, but it's there.

I try to come up with something to say, but I can't think of much. "So…," I start, hoping that he'll suddenly say something. He doesn't. I don't know how to continue, but my mouth does. "You're not going to question me about Will?" What? Where does that come from? I think I'm going to – never mind. If I hurt my mouth, I hurt myself. Not a good plan.

His face darkens for a moment. "_Should_ I question you about Will?" he asks. "I mean, is it a matter of life and death that I do so?"

I ponder his question for a moment. "No, I don't think it is," I say at last. "But… since you were acting like such an overprotective – friend, some other time when I talked to him…"

His face is unreadable as he says, "You told me he wouldn't hurt a fly. There's no need for me to be so extremely overprotective then, is there?"

"No, there isn't," I respond quietly. I don't know how we do it, but the mood is very different from Friday. It's weird, frightening. It makes me nervous.

Another silence washes over us and I have to concentrate very hard to not look sideways.

"Al told us you figured out what they're doing, by the way," he says suddenly. If his voice seemed a little cold earlier, it's all gone now. "Nice detective work, Rose."

I blush a bit. "Yeah, well."

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?" he asks curiously. "Like searching the potion or – I don't know – cursing them all into the Hospital Wing so they can't brew it?"

"I wouldn't curse them all into the Hospital Wing," I protest, and he raises one eyebrow at me. It's killing me.

"From what I've heard, you already did that," he says, amused.

"They didn't have to stay there for longer than five minutes," I tell him. "I doubt that those were five very crucial minutes." I shrug. "But yes, Lily and I will be looking for the potion."

His eyes narrow slightly for a moment as I mention Lily – I wonder if he still hasn't forgiven her for what happened a month ago. I cock my head to the side and eye him in wonder. That seems to be the case indeed. I get that he might be mad at her for calling him, pretty much, a weak and spineless follower, but maybe if they just talked about it?

Come to think about it, he hasn't been so weak and spineless lately – as far as I'm aware, of course. That's a good thing, I suppose – he's finally growing up, maturing (not that he wasn't mature before), becoming more self-assured… alright, I must stop now before I start drooling. How embarrassing would that be?

"You don't seem too stressed out about it," he observes, and I redden just a little bit. I can't exactly tell him that I'm almost completely certain that I will have my diary back before their potion is done.

"Yes, well… They're not really Potion geniuses, are they?" I ask, trying to appear as innocent as possible.

"They're not stupid either," he reasons, and I can't deny that. Although – if Lysander normally reads his books upside down, I'll have to doubt Lorcan's statement anyway. But then again, Luna reads certain things upside down as well. It might just be a habit Lysander picked up from her.

"No, they're not," I say. "We'll find that cauldron though. They won't read my diary. Ever."

"You have no idea where to look, do you?" he asks, a small smile present on his lips.

I shrug. "Maybe not, but we still have a few weeks before the potion is ready. We'll find it."

"What are you planning, Rose?" he asks. I glance at him and am surprised to find him staring at me suspiciously. Not good.

My eyes widen. Come on. I should be able to think of one little lie, no? "A party?" I almost squeak. "You know, for when Gryffindor wins their first Quidditch match…" One look at his face proves to me that he does not believe that at all.

"Rose," he says warningly.

"Can't tell you!" I say, dodging his hand as he tries to grab my arm.

"Aren't _friends_ supposed to tell each other everything?" he asks through gritted teeth. Great. Now he's angry again.

"I _really_ can't tell you this, Lorcan," I say apologetically. "I would if I could but… I can't. Sorry."

"You're up to something, aren't you?" he asks.

I briefly close my eyes. "Listen, Lorcan. You wanted to stay out of this whole ordeal, didn't you? You don't want to help your friends open my diary, you don't want to help me get it back. You didn't want anything to do with this. So yes, maybe I'm up to something, maybe I'm not. Either way, it's all about my diary and that is none of your concern. I'm sorry."

I know I'm right for once. If he wants to stay out of this, he should stay out of this entirely. "Right, of course," he says somewhat stiffly. "I was just – sorry."

If it would've been anyone else, I would've made another comment. Now I just keep my mouth shut. That's the wisest thing to do now.

The remainder of the patrol is a little awkward. We don't talk, like usual. We just walk, not hearing anything, not seeing anything (in my case, that is). I'm not really surprised to find that by the end of the rounds, we're at the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. That manages to make me blush again. I'm a helpless case.

"Well, I'll see you around, I suppose," Lorcan says, smiling – though it seems a little forced.

"Yeah, sure. I guess so," I reply, smiling back. "Good night, Lorcan."

"Good night, Rose," he responds with a curt nod. And he's gone. I stare after him; I really hope that next week's rounds won't be like this.

While preparing to go to bed, I think about this. The potion should be done in a week. The plan is ready to be executed a week from tomorrow. Patrols next week might just be a little more awkward than I'd like them to be. We'll find out soon enough.

I'm almost asleep as the door is opened forcefully. "Rose? Are you awake?" That sounds like Francis. I can pretend I'm asleep – okay, I can't. Not when two people try to shake me awake.

"What?" I ask, but they have no mercy. They drag me out of bed and sit me down on the floor instead. Because that's so much better.

"Rose, what happened?" Francis asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask. What on earth are they talking about now?

Francis looks at Natasha for a split-second, and then back at me again. "Will just came up to us. He told her that she's free to cancel the date if she wants to, but that he really, really likes her."

"Okay," I say. I didn't expect Will to do that, but I'm proud of him. "What happened then?"

"She just kept nodding," Francis replies, rolling her eyes.

"And I think Mark saw us talking!" Natasha cries out. "Now he's never going to ask me out!"

"Natasha, we talked about this," I tell her. "Do you really want a boy who just dates you because he knows he stands a chance with you?"

And our discussion starts all over again. It's getting quite repetitive by now. After some talking, Natasha says, "Do you think I should cancel the date? Maybe I do stand a chance then…"

"Don't cancel the date," Francis says.

"Do _not_ cancel the date," I repeat. "No, don't. Mark won't suddenly come around then, I can assure you. He's still completely wound around Erin's little finger." Come to think of that, Erin now probably knows about what I told Mark. Oh well, I'll worry about that later.

"But Mark now knows that he… likes me," Natasha says in a desperate tone.

"Richard told him about that already," I tell her without thinking first.

"He did?" Francis asks.

"How do you know?" Natasha asks at the same time.

"I talked to Richard today?" I try. As I see the looks in their eyes, I shuffle uncomfortably. "And I may have talked to Mark yesterday."

"What did he say?" Natasha wants to know immediately. Forgive me for saying this, but she's getting on my nerves a little by now.

"He'll leave you alone, for Will's sake," I say, and instantly reprimand myself. Especially my mouth. It should really learn to wait for my permission to open and close and produce sound. "And because I told him to. Sort of."

"I think you should start running now," Francis says in a stage-whisper. Natasha doesn't look happy indeed, so I stand up and bolt towards my bed.

Grabbing my wand, I say, "Don't come any closer, I warn you." Natasha hasn't even stood up yet, so my reaction is a little overdramatic, I guess.

"Why?" she just asks, and I don't think she's saying that in response to my last comment.

"He's no good for you, sweetie," Francis says, wrapping an arm around her. "Trust us. You can keep telling yourself that he will change, but he won't. He's no good for you."

"Maybe," Natasha says feebly, shifting a little. She sighs. "I'm going to bed. Perhaps I'll know what to do tomorrow."

Francis and I exchange a look. Let's hope she will make the right decision, then.

The next day starts off horribly. Well, breakfast is okay, but Transfiguration class? Not so much. Our dear Professor decides that it's a good plan to pair us all up. Seeing as there are no worse partners than Erin Vane, who's not in this class, I'm not too scared.

I bet the Professor noticed that. He sees everything, after all.

So I guess I should've expected it when he pairs me up with Al. Needless to say, we're not amused.

We're told to work together in order to transfigure a carrot into a shoe. I have no idea why we have to do this in _sixth year_. This is not what I expected from Transfiguration at NEWT level. Within five minutes, both Al and I have successfully managed to turn the carrot into a shoe and back, and we're bored. Nobody else is done yet (honestly?), so all we can do is talk to each other. Joy.

"How's your cauldron hunt going, Rosie?" he asks, staring at the front of the classroom. So do I; that's much more interesting that my cousin. Erin was right about that – he _is_ boring. Still, that doesn't give her the right – never mind. I've ranted enough about this already.

"Fantastic," I say emotionlessly. "We've scheduled another hunt this weekend and we're bringing reinforcements. It will be great."

"No, you're not," he says tonelessly.

"Maybe we are," I say.

"No, you're not," he repeats. "You're not as frantic as you usually get in situations like this. Something is up." What is it with people knowing me so well lately? It's frustrating.

"I've decided that I can't possibly beat your power and intelligence and… everything." Yeah right.

"Good for you," he says quietly. After a few seconds, he adds, "You're joking, aren't you?"

"Genius," I mutter under my breath.

"Idiot," he replies.

"Jerk."

"Cry-baby."

My, aren't we good at making up comebacks? We continue like this for another minute, and then we simultaneously decide that we'd better settle this some other way. We jump up and pull out our wands again.

"Don't even start with me," I say. He snorts.

"If you don't want to get hurt, put that wand back in your pocket," he replies.

Of course I don't do this. Muttering a spell I forgot the _exact_ effects of, I wave my wand Al's way. He deflects it and sends a stunner my way. I dive just in time before sending a stunner _his_ way. He dives as well, so we're both on the floor. Another hex approaches me and I quickly mutter, "Protego!"

Just as I'm about to hex him again, the Professor is standing right next to us (well, next to our desks). "Potter, Weasley, what are you doing?" He hardly gives us any time to reply and says, "Detention, both of you. Tomorrow night, you can clean the trophies. They haven't been cleaned yet since before the summer."

I groan. Yes, that's a wonderful way to spend my Saturday night: cleaning dirty trophies with my least favourite family member. At least it's only for one time. I can hardly wait.


	17. Quiet quirks and quick quarrels

Apparently, after two good nights of sleep, Natasha has made up her mind. This causes me to be almost obliged to run through the school to reach her. Running is actually forbidden, but everyone still does it. I still can't run, so I doubt I'll be of much help when I'm finally in the common room. But who knows, perhaps all this running will someday cause me to be able to run properly.

Francis was nice enough to send me an owl, although I was just at the other side of the castle. I wasn't that far away. I'm starting to doubt that, however, as I make my way through the castle. I can only hope that Natasha hasn't gone through with her plan. Francis informed me that she'll try to put it off for as long as possible.

In case it's not clear enough, Natasha is planning to cancel the date with Will. She thinks that she'll stand a chance with Mark then. Both Francis and I still doubt that. Very much.

Sadly, Natasha has already started her plan as I arrive in the common room. Francis is standing next to her, most likely whispering urgently. That won't stop Natasha, I'm sure of it. Will looks a little confused, but at the same time, he looks defeated.

"Natasha, there you are!" I manage to shout – otherwise, I'm out of breath. The three of them look around; heck, everyone in the common room looks around. Natasha looks disturbed by my entrance, and I seem to have interrupted her mid-sentence.

"Rose, this is not the time," she says, her eyes wide. She looks from me to Will, and to Francis. "You're behind this," she concludes, narrowing her eyes at her. She then turns to Will resolutely. "Listen, Will, about what you said earlier – "

She yelps, and she has every right to do so. Francis and I both grab one of her arms and forcibly drag her away from the scene, upstairs to our dorm. Will stares after us, perplexed, and the entire common room joins him.

"What?" Natasha cries out as we almost dump her on the floor. "Why did you do that?"

"We were saving you," I say.

"We were making sure you wouldn't make a grave mistake," Francis backs me up.

"I wasn't going to make a mistake," Natasha protests. "I was just going to cancel the Hogsmeade date!"

"So you were going to make a mistake," Francis says. "Can't you just give him a chance?"

"He's going to think that I like him if I'll go with him," Natasha argues, and I shake my head.

"Honestly, he doesn't. You made sure of that when you were drooling over Mark not so long ago," I tell her. "One date won't hurt, right?"

She bites her lip. "I don't know."

I sigh. "He means well, Natasha," I say. I've said stuff like this a million times already, and she still doesn't listen. "He doesn't deserve this. It's just one date. No strings attached. Who knows what'll happen if you just give it a chance."

Natasha's just frowning, and Francis uses this opportunity to say something herself. "Tash, let me ask you something. Do you really think that we, as your best friends, would go out of our way to prevent you from cancelling that date if we weren't sure that Will likes you, doesn't have any ulterior motives, and won't expect anything more than just a few hours to spend with you?"

Biting her lip, Natasha shakes her head. "That's not fair," she tells us. "But maybe you're right. I won't cancel the date, I promise. But only if you tell us more about your non-existing love life." She directs this last comment at Francis, and I grin, remembering one of our earlier talks.

Francis snorts. "I don't think that's very fair either. But alright. As you already said, my love life is non-existing. I plan on keeping it that way. Honestly," she says as she sees our disbelieving looks. "If something changes, I'll notify you immediately, but for now, nothing's going on."

Natasha and I exchange one glance, and we don't stop asking all kinds of questions until half an hour later. There's nothing to tell, it seems – that, or Francis is really good at keeping secrets. After the Will debacle, I'm pretty certain that it's the former, though.

Once we're sure that Natasha really won't cancel the date, I decide to go back to the Great Hall. Maybe dinner's not over yet.

"You know that I'm going to kill you, right?" I'm barely out of the portrait hole when someone grabs my wrist.

"What for?" I ask, trying to sound as innocent as possible. Will doesn't buy it, though. Bummer.

"You told Mark," he states, and I can't deny that.

"I was just trying to help," I defend myself. "Besides, he already knew that you like Natasha."

"Still, you should just mind your own business," he says.

"Oh," I reply.

"You never mind your own business," he comments. "You didn't mind your own business just now, with Natasha."

"She was about to cancel the date," I inform him. "You should be glad we intervened. We even managed to persuade her to give you a chance." We stand in silence for a few seconds. "Unless you wanted her to cancel the date."

He shrugs. "She doesn't want me anyway. I don't think it'll make a difference."

"You never know, Will," I tell him for the umpteenth time. "One date can make one hell of a difference." He just sighs, and I say, "But you should do whatever you want."

I've already told him that multiple times as well, so I walk away, towards the Great Hall. Or perhaps towards the kitchens. I need to feed myself well if I want to survive a trophy cleaning detention with Al.

Filch is already present as I enter the trophy room. He holds out his hand and I reluctantly give him my wand. There are two (already dirty) rags lying on the floor and I wonder how we're ever going to clean the trophies with those. Filch just stands there, grinning like a maniac. As time passes, that grin is replaced by a scowl though. Al is certainly taking his time.

"Should I start already?" I ask after a while. Filch glares at me, causing me to recoil slightly. He doesn't say anything, so I guess that's a 'no' then. That's all fine with me.

I'm just glad that they haven't informed our parents about what happened now. Not that it would've been a surprise, since incidents like these aren't unusual. We get into fights like this a couple of times every year, whenever we can't ignore each other anymore.

Fifteen minutes after our detention was supposed to begin, Al comes trudging into the trophy room. He doesn't look very happy, but that's probably because he's stuck here, cleaning trophies with me on a Saturday night.

"You're late, Potter," Filch growls at him, taking Al's wand from his hand harshly.

"I know," he replies impassively. "Can we just start?"

Filch looks at him oddly for a moment, before replacing the confusion in his face with anger once more. "You should've started fifteen minutes ago, Potter. I will inform the Head of your House that you were late."

Al doesn't look impressed, and I have to admit, I'm not impressed either. Neville always lets stuff like this slip. He likes us too much sometimes. "Rose obviously didn't start fifteen minutes ago," my dear cousin comments, but Filch is out of the room already.

"He wouldn't let me," I tell him flatly, and he rolls his eyes. We both grab one of the rags and start cleaning at the opposite sides of the room.

As it turns out, the trophies have been cleaned recently anyway, no matter what we've been told. It's not too much work, dusting them off. Within half an hour, we're almost done. The slightly angry, slightly confused expression that was on Al's face when he came in hasn't disappeared yet.

"Is something wrong?" I ask him quietly. We're not exactly on speaking terms, I know that. We hate one another. Still, I can't help but feel a little sorry for him sometimes. And now, I'm mostly just curious.

"Nothing that concerns you," he says flatly, concentrating on the trophy he's been 'cleaning' for the past five minutes. I snatch it from his hands and put it back on the shelf.

"It won't get any cleaner," I say, patting his shoulder awkwardly. I have no idea why.

"I'm not telling you what's wrong, Rose," he informs me, apparently thinking that I have ulterior motives for patting his shoulder. I don't, honestly. Alright, maybe just a little.

I huff, pretending to be offended. In reality, I know I could've expected him to react like this. "So there is _something_ wrong," I prod, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Just mind your own business, Rose," Al says, and I cross my arms, offended for real this time. Why does everyone keep telling me to mind my own business lately? It's not as if I'm such a nosy person. Normally.

"I'm only trying to help," I protest, though that's not completely true. I wanted to know what happened and then I was going to express my sympathy. Something along those lines.

"Yeah right," he mutters, sitting down on the dusty floor. "You, helping me? When is the last time that happened?"

A very long time ago. Some time in the distant past. "That's not just my fault," I defend myself, and he shrugs.

"I wasn't saying that. I just don't think either of us is really capable of helping the other anymore."

"If you continue being such a jerk, that's an easy thing to say." I don't know how long it'll be until Filch comes back, but I refuse to sit down on the floor as well. There's a lot of dust, and my cousin, who's not being very nice, is sitting there too. "But if that's the way you want it. I was only trying to help," I repeat.

We don't talk anymore after that. Albus stays on the floor, drawing things in the dust, while I walk around the room, reading what's on the various trophies. Maybe he's right. Maybe we should just stop minding each other's business and just ignore each other the entire time. Even more than we already do. It sounds like a plan to me, but first, I want my diary back.

I could ask him about it, _again_, but chances are things will get out of hand. Besides, the potion will be done soon. I'll have my diary back within the next week. Lily and I have our final meeting about it later tonight, and hopefully, everything will be ready for the final phase of our plan then.

Suddenly, Filch is back. After inspecting a few trophies, he grudgingly hands us back our wands. I hastily leave the room, but before I've turned around the corner, Al passes me. It's more than obvious that he doesn't want to walk with me. That feeling is mutual.

Since it's Saturday night, a lot of people are hanging out in the common room. Will, Mark and Richard are occupying half the space near the fire, but otherwise, no one from my year is there. Francis and Natasha must've had some or other crazy idea again and I don't think I want to know where Albus and Erin are.

Hugo is playing chess like the real chess addict he is, and Lily is writing a letter in a corner. "Who are you writing to?" I ask her, sitting down on a window sill.

"James," she replies, and I raise an eyebrow. That's a surprise. "He wanted to know how the diary hunt is going."

"Why couldn't he write me about that?" I ask, reading over Lily's shoulder what she's writing.

"He did, actually," she responds, smiling apologetically. "But you were in detention, and James writing you, well, there's only one thing he could write you about now, right?"

"Where's the letter?" I interrupt her. I'm a little peeved that Lily just read my letter without letting me read it first. She hands it over and I read it quickly. There's nothing top-secret in there, but still. "Could you not read my post the next time?"

"Sorry, Rose," she apologises. "I thought it wouldn't hurt. This time."

I shrug. "Okay then. Now let me see what you're writing."

After finishing the letter to James (promising to write him a detailed report about what happens on Friday), Lily says, "About Friday, tell me your plan. I still don't get it."

"We use the mirrors," I start, before stopping to think. "You'll go to the Ravenclaw common room and warn me when they're coming down." Albus, after all, always goes there too, before heading to breakfast with his friends. "I'll make sure the potion is in their goblets and nobody else touches them. When they're seated, I'll cast a Sticking Charm so they can't run away for at least… ten to twenty minutes. They drink the potion, I'll ask the question, and tell you the answer."

Lily grins. "Sounds like a plan," she tells me. "I have to say, I had some doubts, but that Sticking Charm sounds useful." I nod happily. Everything's taken care of. The plan only needs to be executed. Let's hope they'll drink the potions before the Sticking Charms stop working.

The next day starts out as rather normal. I have breakfast, walk around the grounds with Natasha and Francis, and get drenched as a downpour suddenly starts. After lunch, I have no idea what to do. When I walk back to the common room, to check on the potion, someone bumps into me.

"Rose! I was just looking for you!"

"You were?" I squeak, surprised. Well, talk about shock.

"Yeah, I was," Lorcan replies, smiling. I'm reminded of another time, a few weeks ago, when he was looking for me. That didn't end well. "What are you up to today?"

All of a sudden, it hits me. He planned this. "Nothing much," I answer his question. "I was actually just going back to the common room now."

He nods in understanding. "Oh, of course. Could I come along?"

Yes, he's definitely the one who's up to something here. "Sure, I don't see why not," I tell him sweetly. "I just remembered that I have to post a letter first though, so we'll have to make a detour to the Owlery."

"Sounds good to me," he says.

We start walking again, and I ask, "Why were you looking for me?"

"All my other friends are busy today," he tells me with a slight pout, and I laugh, ignoring the sting that the word 'friend' leaves.

"So you decided that I wasn't busy?"

"You just said you weren't busy," he says, sounding a little confused.

"I know," I reply, "but I could have been busy, right?"

"Highly unlikely," he says, and then reddens a bit. "I mean, you're never busy on Sundays."

"I'm not?" I ask. Trying to remember what I was doing last week, and the weeks before that, I reach the same conclusion. I really never do anything on Sunday. "I'm not, am I?"

"Hardly," he says, laughing nervously. "Which is easily explained by the fact that you always do your homework the day it's assigned."

That makes sense, but that doesn't explain how he knows that. I decide to let it slip, for we've arrived at the Owlery now. I beckon a school owl over and hastily tie the letter to James to its paw.

"Don't you have an owl?" Lorcan asks as we leave the Owlery. I have to admit, I'm sort of disappointed that he doesn't know about that. He knows the strangest things about me, but simple facts like whether or not I own an owl are unanswered questions to him? Odd.

"Hugo and I share an owl," I reply, "but Hugo keeps hogging it constantly. Besides, mum and dad only got us an owl when Hugo was a first year, and I was used to using school owls by then."

He nods pensively and we're silent for a moment. I'm not really watching where we're going, as usual. His presence is enough to distract me from anything.

"Where are we?" I ask, finally noticing that our surroundings are not the usual paintings I pass when walking to the common room.

"Uh…," Lorcan says, looking around as well. "I have no idea." That's absolutely wonderful. Neither of us paid any attention to where we were going and now we're lost. One thing I know for sure: we're not at the fifth, sixth or seventh floor. I know those by heart by now.

"Isn't that the Charms classroom over there?" I ask, pointing towards the other end of the corridor. We walk over, and it's indeed the Charms classroom. We're saved. Not that I would've minded being lost with Lorcan for a little longer, but not being lost is even better. Today has been a bit awkward, I think.

After another five minutes, we reach a point from where both our common rooms are easily reachable. Checking my watch, I notice that it's half past four already. Where did the afternoon go?

"Perhaps we should just go back to our own common rooms," I say. "It's no use getting comfortable anymore, it's almost dinner time." And I need to look how the potion's doing. Still, it's a pity.

"Are you trying to get rid of me, Rose?" he asks, trying to sound hurt. All I hear, though, is impatience.

"Of course not!" I say hastily. It's the last thing I would do.

"It sounds like it," he tells me. "Do you have somewhere else you need to be?"

"No, I don't," I lie. Unfortunately, he sees right through me.

"You're up to something, Rose," he says, repeating what he said last Thursday.

"So what if I am?" I ask. "That's not your problem, is it?"

"As your friend, it is my problem," he objects.

"I'll tell you next week, alright?" I say.

He shuffles uncomfortably. "I'd rather have this out of the way before then."

Although that is very sweet, I just can't tell him sooner. As I tell him this, he just smiles half-heartedly. Before either of us can say anything else, Lily arrives at the scene. I don't notice her at first, but then I see Lorcan stiffen.

"Potter," he says stiffly, and I whirl around. Lily doesn't look too happy with his presence either.

"Scamander," she acknowledges him. "Rose, what are you doing here with him? Is he harassing you about your diary?"

I seem to have temporarily lost the ability to speak – all I can do is gape at her like a fish. For some reason, she interprets this as an affirmative reply.

"I'm staying out of that whole situation," Lorcan says, and I snort slightly. He can't stay out of it, but he realised that only last week. And then it was too late already.

"Just leave Rose alone," Lily tells him, placing her hands at her hips. "She obviously doesn't want you here."

"Lily," I interrupt her, but she doesn't appear to hear me.

"In fact," she continues, "I don't think she wants you near her regardless what your timing is. She would never want to get involved with someone like you. She doesn't like you at all, do you, Rose?"

That takes it all completely overboard, as far as I am concerned. Sadly, all I can do is splutter. I turn towards Lorcan, who looks very hurt now.

"Are you coming, Rose?" Lily asks. She's already walking away, without really waiting for me.

"Was that true?" Lorcan asks me softly. In his eyes is nothing but hurt, and I almost can't bear to look at him. I'm fairly sure that I'm shaking my head at his question, but maybe I'm not. Or he doesn't notice. "Well then," he says after a while. "That's good to know."

Not saying anything else, he turns around and walks away, towards the Ravenclaw common room, leaving me standing there. I don't know what just happened, but I know that it's not good. I briefly consider running after him, but he's probably in his dorm already, and I'm in no mood to answer a question to get into the Ravenclaw tower.

I stumble over to the nearest staircase and sit down, not caring about how dusty it is now. How is it possible that I always manage to get into these situations? I don't think I've had an entirely normal conversation with Lorcan lately. We're almost always fighting at one point or another. And here I was, thinking that there was no way Lorcan ever got mad at someone. But he doesn't. He never gets mad or loses his patience. Lily annoys him, yes, but I think I'm the only one he's ever angry with. I don't think that's a good thing. Not at all.


	18. Keen kin and killjoys

**A/N**: This chapter's a little shorter than the average chapter, I think... hopefully, you'll like it anyway :) After this, there's only three chapters left (which will contain the 'grand finale' of which I'm not so sure it's very grand, but we'll see when we get there, right?). Hope you enjoy this!

* * *

The next few days go by in a blur. I hardly realise it when people talk to me, if they even do, and I do my homework almost mechanically. When I'm not doing homework, I lie down on my bed and stare in the distance. I still can't believe what happened.

Needless to say, I haven't talk to Lorcan since Sunday, nor have I talked to Lily. Natasha and Francis keep shooting me strange glances every now and then, but they don't ask questions. I have a vague feeling that they asked questions in the beginning, but by now, they've given up. And so have I. Fate is not on my side, that has become clear by now. The thought of Prefect patrols tonight make me feel sick. Rolling over on my bed, I continue wallowing in self-pity. It's not fair.

Merlin, I'm so mature.

Sighing, I plop down on the floor and pull the cauldron out from under the bed. _Tomorrow_, I tell myself. Tomorrow I will get my revenge. Tomorrow will be the start of a new period in my life. A period without my annoying cousin and his friends. Still, my heart aches at the thought.

The potion looks fine, and just to be sure, I take a vial from my trunk and pour some of the clear liquid in it. At this stage, I can't afford to mess up anymore. I vaguely register a knock on the door as I push the cauldron back to where it ought to be, and place the vial (with a protective spell around it) back in my trunk.

The door opens and Lily slips into the room carefully. I send her an annoyed look and lie back down on my bed.

"Hey Rose," she says softly. "What's wrong?" She looks as if she doesn't have a clue what's going on, but at the same time, she looks as if she knows she's done _something_ wrong.

I just huff, cross my arms and continue glaring at my knees, blocking Lily from my view. Unfortunately, Lily doesn't mind that. She just walks over to my bed and sits next to me.

"Rose?" she asks. "What did I do? And what's going on with you these days?"

"What did you do?" I ask through gritted teeth. "Do you even _need_ to ask? You're a horribly meddlesome person, do you even realise that?" Wow, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

"_I'm_ meddlesome?" she (rightfully) asks, perplexed. "What about _you_, Rose? You can't stay out of _anyone's_ business."

"At least when _I_ meddle, it doesn't have such disastrous effects," I mumble. Not as far as I remember at this moment.

"Disastrous effects?" Lily asks sceptically. "Aren't you exaggerating a little here, Rose?"

"No, Lily, I'm not," I say. Should I tell her? She must be this close to guessing what's wrong anyway.

"When is the last time I meddled with your business?" she asks. I look at her oddly. Does she honestly not remember?

"Sunday," I reply, rolling my eyes. I have to refrain from not adding a 'duh' kind of sound.

She frowns. "You mean… with Scamander?" Now it's her turn to eye me oddly. "What's the problem? He was harassing you, wasn't he?"

"No, he wasn't," I inform her. "We were doing absolutely fine."

"Didn't look like it to me," she mutters. "Besides, he's one of the idiots who stole your diary. Why would you even want to hang out with him?"

"He didn't steal my diary, Lily," I tell her impatiently. "He's trying to stay out of the whole ordeal, even though that's impossible."

"Why are you making such a huge problem out of this?" she asks in a slightly frustrated tone. "I mean, what does it matter? It's just Scamander. No big deal. I don't see why you're so upset about it."

I splutter. No big deal? "Gee, I wonder," I say sarcastically, crossing my arms again.

"You like him?" she asks incredulously after a few seconds of silence. "Seriously, Rose? You like _Lorcan Scamander_?"

I groan; Lily's almost shouting by now. "Shut your gob," I snap at her. "I don't need you to shout it from the roofs."

"So you do?" she asks, still shocked. "Well, excuse me for not realising that before. I just never thought you'd like someone like… him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, a bit offended now.

"He's so odd," Lily replies. "And he's like this… perfect Ravenclaw Prefect. And you're… Rose." She scrutinises me closely, and I don't know what to make of her statement. "You're Rose," she repeats, in an entirely different tone, "the perfect Gryffindor Prefect. Together, you would make the… perfect Prefect couple." She then proceeds to erupt into giggles, and I have to admit, the corners of my mouth twitch upwards as well.

"Shut up, you cow," I say, pushing Lily off of the bed.

"Okay, okay," she gives in. "Sorry, I guess I _could_ have known after all. I just figured he was annoying you like his friends do all the time." She scratches her head. "So, what now?"

"What, what now?" I ask. I'm glad she knows, actually. At least she won't say such stupid things again.

"Have you talked to him?" she asks, sitting down on the bed again, out of my reach this time.

I shake my head. "I don't think he's ever going to talk to me again," I say, feeling miserable once again.

She snorts. "If that's the case, he's not worth your time, Rose."

I guess she's right. "And we have patrols tonight…"

"Perfect opportunity to talk to him, no?" Lily interrupts me, smiling broadly.

"Not if he refuses to even look at me," I say softly.

"Should I go talk to him?" she offers. "Tell him that I was wrong and that you don't hate him, and all that?"

"No, thanks," I say, and I tell her about my resolution for what'll happen after tomorrow. Lily frowns, but doesn't say anything. "Are you still helping tomorrow?"

"Of course," she says happily. "I can't wait to see Al go down. And Malfoy. Besides, it's the least I can do after mucking things up like this."

"Thanks, Lily," I say with a smile.

"Just inform me, the next time you start crushing on someone," she advises me. "At least I won't it screw up for you again."

"I know," I say. Suddenly realising something, I frown.

"What?" Lily asks, knowing something's up. "What is it?"

"I just remembered something worse than patrols," I tell her, wide-eyed. She doesn't comment; she just raises an eyebrow at me. "He never called off the date."

"The _date_?" Lily asks disbelievingly. "You two were going on a _date_?"

I scratch my ear awkwardly. "Well, we were going to go to Hogsmeade together, at least. Whether it was a date or not was never really established. And now I have no idea what's going to happen with that."

Lily, however, seems to be thinking in a different way. "So you agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him, yet he does believe me when I tell him you detest him?"

I have to admit, that is rather strange indeed. Boys…

Once again, I have no idea where to meet up with Lorcan for our patrols. I walk up and down the Entrance Hall a couple of times before bumping into someone. Thinking that it must be him, I flush, but then I conclude that it's actually somebody else.

"What do _you_ want, Malfoy?" I ask, pulling a face.

He flashes a smile and replies, "Trust me, Weasley, I'd rather not be here either. But, for tonight, I'll be your patrol partner."

I stare at him in disbelief and snort. "Yeah, right. That's impossible. Where's Lorcan?"

"Not wishing to see you," he replies smoothly, and he turns around towards the staircase. I'm frozen to the spot. It's almost unbelievable how much that hurt. He doesn't want to see me? Well, there goes my plan of explaining the situation to him – how Lily had no idea what she was talking about, how everything she said was untrue. I can't even ask him if we're still on for Sunday.

"What?" I whisper softly.

"Are you coming, Weasley?" Malfoy shouts at me from across the Hall. I glare furiously and stomp over to him.

"Why isn't he here?" I repeat. "I came, didn't I?"

Malfoy shrugs. "We Ravenclaws don't do courage."

"So why are you here, then?" I counter. He could've known I was probably going to tear him apart, limb by limb – in my mind, that is. "Utter stupidity?"

He rolls his eyes. "It's the least I could do for a friend."

"Oh, cut it out, Malfoy," I say. "I can patrol by myself, thank you very much. You can go back to your common room because trust me, your presence is probably much more wanted there."

"You wound me, Weasley," he says as if we're old friends. He already seems to confuse me for a certain cousin of mine.

"Why are you even here?" I ask again, choosing to ignore his stupid comment. "Why didn't Lorcan just change with some other Prefect? You're not even a Prefect. You're not allowed to do patrols."

He rolls his eyes again. "Please, Weasley, spare me. Don't go all Prefect-y on me. I'm not in the mood."

"I could report you to a Professor, you know that?" I continue. "I could give you detention for being out of your common room after curfew." I realise that I must sound incredibly annoying right now – much like the Ravenclaw girls in my year.

"You wouldn't, Weasley," he says, but he doesn't sound too sure.

"Why wouldn't I? You've made my life miserable for years now!" I cry out. I don't care that I'm making more noise than should be appropriate at this time of day.

"You had it coming," he replies – one of his usual arguments. "Just – don't tell a Professor, alright? _Your_ friends would do the same thing for you." I'm surprised – he actually acknowledges that I have friends. That's new.

"Fine," I say in the end, and this seems to surprise _him_. "But I am going to dock you ten points for being out of bed after curfew."

"Nothing we can't overcome," is all he says. He may be right; perhaps ten points isn't nearly enough.

We walk in silence for a while, and I occasionally check classrooms or hidden passages for students. Malfoy isn't really a big help, but I've already concluded that the only reason he's here is, most likely, making sure that I won't find their cauldron. Which would mean that it's not in their dorm. That's interesting, but not really useful for me to know anymore.

"Why did you come?" I ask after a while. "Why not someone else?"

"Lysander was nowhere to be found," Malfoy says, staring at the ceiling. "And as I said, Lorcan wasn't really in the mood for patrols."

After another silence, I ask hesitantly, "Could you tell him that Lily had no idea what she was talking about?" He blinks.

"What? Weasley, I'm not your personal messenger."

"He doesn't want to talk to me," I exclaim. "How else should I tell him that?"

"Send an owl," he says.

"If he knows my handwriting, he won't read the letter anyway, if he's really as upset as you make him out to be," I tell him.

"Fine," he says. "I'll tell him Lily had no idea what she was talking about. Anything else?"

Ignoring the somewhat sarcastic tone in his voice, I say, "Just tell him that nothing Lily said was true."

"Sounds like quite a melodrama you've got going on there," he comments, snorting a little. "Please, don't tell me what's going on. But you owe me one."

"No, I don't," I retort. "You owed me one for stealing my diary. If anything, we're even now." A shrug is the only response I get.

I have no idea why I asked him to do this. Malfoy can't be trusted. Who knows what he'll tell Lorcan. So why did I ask him? I have no idea.

When we're almost done, we're near the Ravenclaw common room. At least I'll know if Malfoy doesn't go there straight away. "Why are you being so… nice, for your standards?" I want to know.

"I have strict instructions not to rile you up too much tonight," he says lazily. "Apparently, you're under enough stress already. You can thank Lorcan for that. If he ever decides to speak to you again."

I can really count on Scorpius Malfoy to make me feel better. Yeah, not really. "I think we're done for tonight," I say in response, and he salutes me.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be off, then." The common room is just around the corner, and I stay to listen until I'm sure he went inside.

"You're back already?" a (very familiar) voice says – speaking to Malfoy, fortunately. Otherwise he'd know I'm eavesdropping.

"Yep," is Malfoy's reply. "We're done. Why? Is it too early?"

"You didn't walk her back to the Gryffindor tower?" Lorcan asks inquiringly. I can just imagine Malfoy pulling a face.

"Why would I want to do that?" he asks as if he tastes something foul. "I had to walk around the castle with her for two hours. That's quite enough for me."

"To make sure she got back safely," Lorcan tells him, and I can't help but smile a little. It's hard to believe he's actually worried about my safety, but this must be the proof.

"She will," Malfoy says. "You made me do rounds with her to assure that she would be safe. I'm sure she'll manage to walk back to her common room by herself just fine."

That's all I hear – they must've entered the common room. I feel like skipping towards the Gryffindor tower now. It seems that this horrid night still got a not quite as horrid ending.


	19. Vengeance and verification

**A/N**: So... the beginning of the end. I hope you enjoy it! :)

* * *

The morning after, I still feel like skipping. My bad mood has disappeared and Francis and Natasha notice immediately. Assuring them that I will explain everything to them some other time (though preferably never), I do tell them something else.

"You know, today I will get my diary back."

"That's great, Rose," Natasha says, and Francis nods.

"Yeah, that's awesome. That cauldron has been producing some strange odours recently. Please get rid of it soon."

"As soon as I have my diary back," I promise, but Natasha looks at our friend strangely.

"I don't smell anything. Are you sure there's nothing under _your_ bed?"

"Very sure," Francis replies, but she doesn't look sure. We walk to the bed in question and hesitantly crouch down. "Don't!" Francis yelps, and I'm glad we weren't actually underneath the bed yet. We would've hurt our heads horribly from jumping at her voice.

"Why not?" we ask in unison.

"It's not safe," Francis hastily says.

"What are you hiding down there?" I ask suspiciously.

"It smells like a hellhole," Natasha adds, and I have to agree.

"There's nothing down there," Francis says feebly. "Nothing but my socks, that is."

"Your socks are producing that smell?" Natasha asks, very surprised. At Francis' sheepish nod, we both pull a face. That's simply disgusting.

Without any further comments (nothing we could say would do in this situation), we crawl back to our own beds, and relatively clean air. Delicious. I hastily fill a second vial with the potion and walk down, and through the common room. Lily, in an attempt to make up for what she did, stole the Cloak yesterday night, so she can stand right outside the Ravenclaw common room without being seen. This would be much easier if we just had the Map, but it seems that Al is taking it with him everywhere he goes nowadays, so the Cloak will have to do. Let's just hope they don't find out about Lily standing there.

Entering the Great Hall, I immediately check the Ravenclaw table. Fantastic. They're not here yet. I make my way over to their regular seats and see, to my glee, that their goblets of Pumpkin Juice are filled already. Looking around to be sure nobody sees me (it's still early, and therefore, almost nobody is there – Professors included), I pour some of the potion in all the goblets.

When I'm done, I hear my name. Fearing at first that someone caught me, I soon realise that it's Lily, using the mirrors. I walk away from the Ravenclaw table and take out the mirror.

"What is it?" I ask quietly. "Have they left already?"

Lily nods. "They just left. How's your part of the plan going?"

"The potion pouring part is completed," I tell her, looking around again for suspicious people. "Now I only have to stick them to their seats and get some answers from them."

"I wish I could be there to see it," she replies wistfully, and I grin.

"The effects will be there all day long," I say, "so you'll get your chance at having a nice chat with them as well."

Lily laughs, and says, "Sounds good. I'm going to stay here now. Save me some food, would you? I'm kind of hungry."

Before I have the chance to reply, she must've stuck the mirror back in her pocket, for all I see is darkness. I walk towards the Gryffindor table quasi-casually and take out my wand. I flick it a couple of times to see if it's still working (it's been in Erin Vane's hands, so you never know what nasty effects that might cause, even weeks after the incident), and then settle for watching the door. Remembering that Lily asked me to save her some breakfast, I quickly throw some sandwiches in my bag and look at the door again. I'm not hungry at all; I'm much too nervous.

Only as the four boys walk into the Great Hall, I realise that I just did something totally wrong. I was supposed to spike only three goblets, not all four of them. Although, on the other hand, what if they switched seating arrangements so one of the real culprits wouldn't have to drink the potion? That's a toughie.

Either way, they sit down. I silently perform the same spell four times (might as well go through with it completely) and sit back, waiting for them to raise their goblets.

Two minutes later (according to my watch), I curse inwardly. Are they ever going to drink their pumpkin juice? Darn. Maybe they noticed Lily on the Map, and me as well. Perhaps they know what's going on.

I'm about to stand up and leave the Hall in an attempt to get away unscathed, but all of a sudden, Al raises his goblet. I could jump up and down from happiness right now. The other boys follow suit, and without realising it, my face is almost splitting in two halves because I'm grinning so widely.

I get up casually and saunter over to the Ravenclaw table. Normally I would never saunter, but this is the perfect opportunity to try it. With a cough, I announce my presence, and all four boys look up. Lorcan immediately chokes in his drink. Al raises an eyebrow, Malfoy looks bored, and Lysander tries to help his brother regain a normal breathing pattern.

"So, boys," I start, plopping down next to Al. I can't waste too much time on small-talk, since I don't know how long the Sticking Charm will work. "How are you this beautiful morning?"

"You're a troll, Weasley," Malfoy says, and then frowns. Apparently, that was not what he was planning on saying.

"No, she's not," Lorcan oh-so-sweetly defends me, and he claps his hands over his mouth swiftly.

"Al?" I ask, turning towards my cousin apprehensively. Who knows what he has in store for me.

"I hate owls," he replies, and the four of them share a look. I'm sort of glad they don't appear to be able to ask me what I did to them – to be honest, at the moment I'm not so sure anymore.

"Where's my diary?" I ask instead, getting straight to the point. Al's eyes widen, and I know that he knows what I'm doing here.

"I always copy Al's homework," Malfoy says. "I've never done it myself." Wow. That's true friendship right there. Judging from Al's incredulous look, he didn't know this.

"Well, my girlfriend is a cheat," Al counters, and I splutter. He knows? What. The. Hell.

"I know," Lysander says. "She's great. You don't know what you're missing." He proceeds to look absolutely mortified.

"You are so dead," Al threatens him, but quickly adds, "as soon as I can stand up again. Rose."

"Where is my diary?" I repeat, crossing my arms. I could stay here all day, repeating the Sticking Charm over and over again. But then, someone else arrives.

"Albus! Where were you this morning?"

Erin really has a bad timing today. Not that I care.

"You're a cheat," Al tells her, and she looks taken aback. I think I know what's coming next…

"Weasley!" she shouts at the top of her lungs. I think Al and I will now be having a lifelong battle about who can use Grandpa Arthur's hearing aids – he himself never notices it when he doesn't have them with him, so he wouldn't notice us stealing them either.

"He already knew," Malfoy says, and I scowl. How come they can reply to what Erin says, and not to what I ask? It's unfair.

"I saw you," Al informs her, and us along with her. "We're done."

Erin huffs, but she doesn't seem too sad. She just turns around, marches towards the Gryffindor table and sits down right next to Mark. Natasha, who just comes walking in, sees this, of course. Francis drags her towards the table as well and is probably trying to cheer her up. She'll need it.

"Where's my diary?" I ask again, starting to grow impatient. "The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can leave."

"I thought about it all week," Al tells me, as if we're once again the two inseparable little kids we were ages ago. He sighs sadly. "It's for the best." All week? I think I know why he was acting so oddly during detention, then…

They seem to have lost all control about what they're saying. Knowing that it'll most likely help nothing, I grab my bag and take out some parchment.

"Write it down," I instruct Al, carefully avoiding Lorcan's somewhat curious gaze. "Where is my diary, Al?"

What he writes down ultimately? 'Scorpius can't fly at all'. I knew that already. I watched him fall off his broom over and over again one summer in the Potters' backyard. My dad kept laughing every time it happened.

So did I.

But that's not the point.

And no, I can't fly either. But at least I'm not stupid enough to climb on a broom again and again to get thrown off anyway.

Well, I can't really see this going anywhere. They're just spitting out random stuff that may or may not be true. If the truth-part of the potion is still working, it is the truth. Groaning, I bury my head in my hands for a second. Then I look back to the Gryffindor table. I don't feel quite at home here among all these Ravenclaws. And my cousin, of course.

"Well," I say, "it was lovely, but I'd better be off now." Without waiting for an answer, I stand up and briefly leave the Great Hall. "Lily!" I hiss after having taken the mirror out of my pocket.

"Rose!" she replies, and she sounds relieved. "Did you find out?"

I shake my head miserably. "They keep telling me random things, but not where my diary is."

"Random stuff?" she asks. "That's not supposed to happen, right?"

"No, it's not," I say, sighing. "So just abort the mission for now, alright?"

She's gone without answering. Within no time, she's downstairs, sprinting towards the Gryffindor table. She must really be very hungry, then. After dumping the toast I already saved her on her plate, I say, "They're really not making any sense at all. Let's hope they'll be able to tell us about the diary soon."

Lily nods, stuffing her face with all kinds of food at the same time. That's really such a Weasley thing to do, if I do say so myself. "And you still have a whole lot of Veritaserum left," she says, after finally swallowing half the food that once was at the Gryffindor table as a whole.

"We could keep feeding them truth serum until they finally manage to tell me where my diary is," I say happily, grinning widely. "By the way, Lily, thanks again for helping me with all this." She waves it away.

"That's quite alright. Anything I can do to bring Al's demise a little closer. I think I'll go join them. Who knows what kind of information I can gather over there."

As she leaves, I move as well. Sitting down opposite Natasha and Francis, I immediately see the former having trouble not bursting into tears.

"He's not worth your tears," I tell her, and Francis sighs.

"I told her that a million times now, but she won't listen. Tash, love, we've known this all along, haven't we?"

"It's all about Erin," I add, patting Natasha's hand pathetically. Hopefully Francis can do more without falling into the food.

"You're right," Natasha sniffs. "Of course you were." Is it me, or is there a taste of bitterness in her voice?

"Sorry, Tash," Francis says. "I wish we were wrong in this too."

"He's not worth it," she continues. "He's an idiot. How could I ever think I stood a chance? He's never been interested in _me_."

There's no way we can deny that, but a new arrival catches our attention. "Natasha, are you okay?" Will asks, inspecting her closely. "You look… sad." Without waiting for an invitation, he slips down next to her.

At first, it looks like Natasha is ready to scream at him for even asking that question, but then she suddenly starts crying for real. Will, probably not expecting that to happen, looks on with a panicking face.

"I'm such a horrible person!" she exclaims, and all three of us open our mouths to deny that, but she won't let us speak. "I can't believe myself." Francis pats her back and I can only stare from my spot at the other side of the table. "I just – didn't see it. I wouldn't see it and look what happened. And as if it wasn't bad enough that I went through that myself, I made you go through that as well. It's terrible. I messed up completely. Could you ever forgive me?"

That is pretty dramatic, if you ask me. Still, I'm glad she finally came to her senses, albeit a little late. Will clearly never learnt how to deal with crying girls – he still looks pretty alarmed.

"Uh – I guess?" he stutters. Natasha manages a small smile and focuses on her breakfast. Will sends me a very non-understanding look, but I just grin in response. It seems that Natasha's definitely going to Hogsmeade with him now, and not just because it'll make Mark notice her. I don't know if it's a nice thing to use Will as a sort of substitute, to make her feel better about herself, but it's better than the previous situation.

Well, at least one major problem is solved now. All that remains is my diary. Just my diary, I tell myself. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else.

After breakfast, first up is Transfiguration. Awesome. It's a theoretical lesson today, for which I'm grateful. Still, I'm silently praying that he won't ask _certain_ people questions today.

There's only one time he does do this – he asks Malfoy to give him a definition of something or other that's _literally_ in the book. But since Malfoy couldn't tell him the right answer even if he knew it (which I highly doubt), he says, "There are spiders in the Forbidden Forest."

"Don't play a game with me, Mr Malfoy," the Professor almost growls. "I'll give you one more opportunity to answer the question. Now."

"There are still a lot of dark objects in my house," he blurts out. Oh, I bet the Ministry will love to hear that. I can already imagine dad doing a little dance when he finds out.

"How interesting," the Professor says, sounding very bored. "Mr Malfoy, care to explain what's going on?"

"Red and orange don't match at all," Malfoy now replies, and the Professor narrows his eyes. I am, for once, with Malfoy on this. I don't know what our dear Professor was thinking this morning when he got dressed.

"That's a week's worth of detention for you, Malfoy," he hisses. "Now, class, pay attention."

Much later, as I exit the Transfiguration classroom, I accidentally bump into Lorcan. I blush, he blushes, you know the deal.

"Sorry," I say, wishing that he wouldn't look at me with such a pained gaze. "Are you alright?"

He opens his mouth to speak, but what comes out is, as I should've expected, not quite an answer. "I really like you, Rose. As more than just a friend." Again, he instantly covers his mouth with his hands, and he looks horrified.

I have to say, I'm flabbergasted. In a good way, I suppose. Before I can reply, however, he starts coughing loudly. He's not the only one, though. Behind us, Lysander and Al are coughing as well, and Malfoy has already crouched down against a wall. Something tells me I shouldn't have mixed the Veritaserum with the pumpkin juice.


	20. Eventual exclamations

I look on, shocked, as the four boys seem to be choking on air all of a sudden. It was the potion, I'm sure of it, but how? I never did any research on the effects of mixing Veritaserum with some other beverage. Or maybe something went wrong with the potion itself?

They're currently gasping for air, and the skin on their forearms starts glowing and becomes more and more blotchy every second. There is nobody else in this hallway anymore except for me and these four. Even the Professor left.

Oh, Merlin. I poisoned them. Why am I only realising this now? The boys don't seem to have a clue as to what's going on, they're just staring and gesturing at each other in panic. I seem to be the only healthy one here, although I'm not so sure of that myself.

The Transfiguration classroom is at the fourth floor. The Hospital Wing is on the first. How am I ever going to get four boys three floors down while they're slowly losing their consciousness and I'm having trouble staying calm?

"Can you walk?" I ask timidly, and they all stare at me. "It was just a suggestion," I whimper. Right now, I'm very glad I listened to Lily when she told me I'd be severely outnumbered if I ever wanted to fight them all at once. Even now that they're all sitting on the floor, they seem too much for me to handle.

Now just wait a second. I frown; since when am I intimidated by these four? Better yet, why am I intimidated by them now? They're in no state to fight.

I turn back to them and almost bark, "Get up, you wimps. If you want to get better, we'll have to get you to the Hospital Wing. And since I'm not going to carry you there, you'll have to walk."

Planting my hands on my hips, I attempt to glare at them. That is quite hard, seeing as I feel guilty as hell for putting them in this pathetic situation. Still, this is better than being intimidated by them.

One by one, they all stand up, hesitantly. With wobbly knees, they take a few steps. Since they've stopped coughing and choking by now (but for how long?), that doesn't cause them to lose balance, at least. Still, their faces and arms don't look good.

"You really have to hurry up," I urge them. The last thing I would want is end up in Azkaban for killing them or something similar.

"What did you do to us?" Al manages to splutter when we've reached the third floor.

"Now is not the time for that, Al," I say impatiently. "Save your energy to get to the Hospital Wing."

Besides, I really need to think of how I'm going to put that eloquently.

I burst into the Hospital Wing and walk headfirst into Madam Pomfrey, who, yes, is still here, even though she must be over a hundred by now. But that's just a guess.

"Madam Pomfrey!" I cry out. "They've been… poisoned, I think!"

She looks past me and immediately notices the four boys in the doorway, panting from walking here. They seem to be swelling up everywhere by now; it's not a pretty sight.

Madam Pomfrey ushers them in quickly and points them all to empty beds – apart from us, there's nobody here right now.

"Ms Weasley?" she suddenly says. "Can you go notify the Head of your House?"

I nod once and sprint out of the door, downstairs, and to the grounds. Bursting into one of the greenhouses, I bend over and try to breathe. Unfortunately for me, I have yet to get used to running like this. It sucks.

"Rose? What's wrong?" Neville looks surprised at seeing me. I just smile awkwardly and then notice that he's actually teaching the fourth year Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. Lily stares at me, surprised as well.

"Could I – have a word – with you – outside – Professor?" I manage to gasp in between breaths, and he nods worriedly.

"What's wrong?" he asks once we're outside the greenhouse.

"It's Al and – " I gasp again. "They've been – uh… poisoned."

"Poisoned?" he asks, frowning. "How? By whom?" Now, I'm glad I'm still out of breath. It's a good excuse for me to not answer _that_ particular question.

He doesn't wait for an answer, but goes back inside and says something, then comes back outside and runs off towards the castle. I guess I should follow him, but I really don't want to. So, as a sort of compromise, I trudge back towards the castle as slowly as I can.

"Rose?" Lily catches up with me easily, and Hugo's with her. "What's wrong?" I just shake my head. "What is it?" she asks.

"The potion," I say softly, glancing from her to Hugo.

"Did something go wrong with the potion?" she asks sharply. "But… how?"

I shrug. "I think it was the mixture with something else that caused something to happen."

"And now?" she asks urgently.

"They're all… blotchy and glowing and swollen and – stuff like that." Lily just stares at me disbelievingly. "Stupid side-effects," I mutter, and walk a little quicker now.

"What are you talking about?" Crap. Hugo doesn't have any idea of what's going on.

"They've been poisoned," I say, not looking at either of my companions.

"You _poisoned_ people?" Hugo exclaims, and I cover his mouth with my hand.

"Could you keep it down?" I hiss. "Not everybody here needs to know. But yes, I accidentally poisoned people. By accident. They were only supposed to tell me where my diary is, but they never did. They just said stupid stuff and now they look like hell."

Hugo seems to finally understand who we're even talking about. "That's pretty bad," he says almost nonchalantly. Then an odd gleam appears in his eyes. "Do you think we can see them? It must look pretty hilarious."

I roll my eyes. "I have no idea, Hugo." We're almost near the Hospital Wing again, and Neville just walks out.

"Rose! There you are. They can't speak at the moment, so you're going to have to tell us what happened."

Wonderful. "I did it," I say bluntly, and Neville gapes at me.

"Excuse me?" he almost splutters – almost, because it's not professional for a Professor to splutter.

"It was an accident," I add quickly, and I can see Lily nodding fervently beside me. It's good to know she's still with me at this point, even though everything is going wrong.

At that moment, we hear loud laughter coming from inside the Hospital Wing. Hugo comes walking out, almost doubled over – that's how hard he's laughing. "It's so funny!" he says, wiping his eyes. "It's _so_ funny."

Neville, sadly, doesn't seem to think so. "I will call your parents as well, then, Ms Weasley." With that, he stalks away. The only sound left are Hugo's hiccups.

"I'm so dead," I say quietly, and Lily pats my arm comfortingly. Mum will kill me, not to mention Aunt Ginny. Or Luna… perhaps. And I try not to think about Malfoy's parents at all. They will really kill me. I think the time to truly panic has finally come now.

We're not allowed to come in anymore; Madam Pomfrey claimed that she needed to take care of her patients in silence. I suspect she also doesn't trust either me or Hugo at the moment, and Lily's with us so she's not allowed to go in either.

At long last, there are voices approaching us. Although – I'm not so sure if that's such a positive thing. Neville is back and he brought a whole posse of people. Awesome. I cower behind Lily's back, but Lily doesn't seem very comfortable anymore either.

There's mum and dad, Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, Luna and Rolf, and two people I don't know. Must be Malfoy's parents then. I barely have time to wonder whether none of these people actually has to, I don't know, _work_, since this is a Friday morning after all. Oh – look, James is here too. He's the only one in the group who's actually grinning from ear to ear. I swallow.

The adults, however, all rush inside, probably to see how everyone is doing. The odd thing is, even _my_ parents do so. James, however, only peeks in for a couple of seconds and then turns to us, almost choking from laughter.

"That's hilarious, Rose," he says, giving me the thumbs up. "Poisoning them, that's an ever better idea than the one I came up with."

"But we used your idea!" I splutter. "I _did_ brew Veritaserum! I just didn't realise it would go wrong if I mixed it with something else!"

That comments causes James to start howling with laughter again, and Hugo joins in. Unfortunately for them – well, for all of us – that's the moment Rolf comes out again. He blinks at the two boys rolling around on the floor (yes, they went there) and says, "Could you all come in now?" I'm surprised by his tone – he doesn't sound too angry. He sounds rather calm; one wouldn't guess that his two sons had just been poisoned.

I nod quietly and walk into the Hospital Wing, with my head down. Lily follows me closely and I have no idea how long it takes James and Hugo to pick themselves up from the floor and come in as well.

"Well, Ms Weasley, you seem to be lucky today." It's Madam Pomfrey who speaks, and I stare at her in wonder. I do? "Whatever you did to these boys, it's curable. They'll be out of here tomorrow, or the day after that."

I sigh in relief and put my head on Lily's shoulder, closing my eyes for a moment. Lily pats my back for as far as that's possible, and I open my eyes again. The adults are scattered across the room, and only my parents are watching me. Correction; only mum is watching me. Dad is too busy glaring at Malfoy's father.

"Rose Weasley," my mum starts, "we are very disappointed in you. Right, Ron?"

"Hm?" Dad looks annoyed; after all, he was winning the glaring contest he had with Mr Malfoy. "Uh, yeah, that's right. Very disappointed."

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" mum asks, crossing her arms and looking at me sternly.

"They stole my diary," I say in a small voice, and for a second, everyone is quiet. Except for a giggle in the background that has to come from James. I'm disturbed.

"They did?" Aunt Ginny turns to Al sternly, and I'm fairly sure my cousin whimpered. Sweet victory. Well, sort of. I'm still screwed. "Al, is that true?"

"Yes?" he replies timidly, eyeing his mum apprehensively.

"And are you going to give it back?" Aunt Ginny asks.

"It's in my bag." Al's voice is nothing more than a whisper, but I hear it anyway. Ready to jump at his bag, I move forward, but my mum stops me.

"Rose? We're not done yet." I groan, but I can see Aunt Ginny picking up Al's back and rummaging through it. She quickly finds my diary and tosses it to me, and I flash her a grin.

"They stole your diary and you poisoned them? That's a little extreme, in my opinion." It's Malfoy's mum who spoke now, surprisingly.

"It's a little more complicated than that," I say, trying to smile. "See, I asked it back first, a couple of times, and we tried to just… take it away, but that didn't work. So… we brewed a potion."

"Who's 'we'?" mum asks, interrupting me. I redden; I didn't even realise that I said that. Damn it.

"That would be me," Lily says quietly, and Aunt Ginny raises an eyebrow. I'm sure there will be hell to pay for Lily once she's alone with her parents. That makes me feel even more guilty.

"I did all the brewing though," I say quickly. "Anyway, we made the potion and it was supposed to be a simple truth serum. I just forgot that I shouldn't just mix potions with other drinks."

"Still, it's pretty interesting to see what happened," Luna says all of a sudden, staring at Lysander curiously. He, in turn, looks scandalised, and he's not the only one.

"Interesting?" Mr Malfoy exclaims. "That girl poisoned my son and you think it's _interesting_?"

"Rose poisoned our _two_ sons, so I think my wife has a right to speak," Rolf defends Luna, and Lily and I share a quick smile.

"Why a truth serum?" mum asks, and everyone goes quiet again.

"A truth serum combined with a Sticking Charm and Two Way Mirrors," I tell her, and Uncle Harry, looking from Al to Lily, pales slightly.

"That sounds pretty smart," dad says, but he shuts up as mum sends him a glare.

"Who gave you the stupid idea of a truth serum?" Mr Malfoy asks, annoyed and I have to bite on my tongue to keep myself from immediately telling on James.

"What else was I supposed to do?" I retort instead, and dad sends me a proud smile.

"You could've written us," mum says, and I fold my arms uncomfortably.

"Yeah, well… I didn't want to bring you into this," I mumble.

Al coughs loudly and tries to sit up. He rasps, "But you did want to bring _James_ into this?"

All heads turn to James now, who glares at his younger brother with all his might. If looks could kill, Al would've died five times over.

"James?" Aunt Ginny asks strictly. "What do you have to do with this?"

James shifts from one foot to the other. "I _may_ have given Rose the idea of using Veritaserum."

"And he sent me a Howler," Al adds, and consequently has another coughing fit.

Dad, I notice, has trouble keeping a straight face, and Uncle Harry has a small smile on his face as well.

"He did, huh?" Aunt Ginny asks.

"It was just a joke, come on," Lily says impatiently. "Honestly, Al, you make it sound a lot worse than it actually was. Besides, you started it all."

"It was for a good cause!" Al rasps on, and he looks at his three companions, probably irritated that they're not saying anything.

"Al, you don't steal girls' diaries," Aunt Ginny tells him as if speaking to a toddler. "Even if you've known them your entire life and you're related to them. It's not polite."

"We had a reason to do it," Malfoy now backs up Al, and his parents – especially his father – don't seem happy that he's doing so. "Really, we did."

"And what _was_ that reason?" mum demands to know, looking around the room.

Al now stares straight at me. "We'll discuss that with Rose once we're out of here," he says quietly, but sure of his case.

I glare in return. "I certainly hope you will."

"Okay, are we done now?" dad asks. "We really need to get back to work."

Mum shoots him an annoyed look, but shrugs. "Probably. We'll talk about this later, Rose. You're coming home in the Christmas break and we will talk about this some more."

"We'll probably join you then," Aunt Ginny says. "I'm sure Rose and Al have a lot to talk about."

"No, we don't," I mutter, but I'm ignored. Seriously, adults.

Dad and Uncle Harry leave soon after, and James sneaks out as well. Luna and Rolf stay a little longer, but then go home as well.

"Isn't she going to get some sort of punishment for what she did?"

Honestly, I can now see why dad hates Malfoy's dad so much. He is, if possible, even more insufferable than his son.

Neville looks up and blinks. "Uh – right. I guess she should be punished. So Rose – no Hogsmeade for you tomorrow. Or for any of you," he adds I an afterthought, looking at the boys.

"I wouldn't allow them to go anyway," Madam Pomfrey says, and Neville nods.

"And… I'm going to deduct thirty points from Gryffindor for such behaviour."

Thirty points, that's not too bad.

"And what about the Potter girl?" Mr Malfoy demands.

Neville looks at him coolly. "If I'm going to deduct Lily points as well, I'll have to add to these boys' punishment as well." That effectively shuts up Malfoy Sr. Finally.

The Malfoys leave as well now, and Neville returns to the greenhouses – apparently, another class is about to start. I didn't even realise it was that late already.

I'm just glad that they're all going to be alright, annoying as they may be. And no Hogsmeade for all of us – that seems fair, I suppose. I flush as I remember the original plans I even had for that trip – that wouldn't have happened anymore anyway.

Somehow, I end up alone with the four hospitalised boys, and Al beckons me over. Pressing my diary (I've got it back! Finally! Words cannot express how happy I am right now, even though I'm still in trouble) to my chest, I slowly walk over to him.

"What?" I ask. Looking at him from up close, I notice that most visible signs of poisoning are gone already.

"You're an idiot, Rose," he says. "Seriously, Veritaserum? That doesn't make any sense. But I suppose that's what you get when asking James, of all people, for help."

I huff. "You're just mad that we got the idea to brew a potion before you lot did."

"You're a danger to society, Weasley," Malfoy growls. "You should be locked up at the ward for the mentally instable in St Mungo's." I want to ignore him, but he continues. "You're seriously the dumbest person I've ever met. It's a miracle you didn't actually _kill_ us. I bet that was what you were trying to do, wasn't it?"

I'm about to protest as Lysander speaks as well. He sounds even raspier than Al when he just started talking. "You're an idiot, Rose. There are just no other words to describe you right now. It was just a frickin' diary. Grow up."

Grow up? _They're_ honestly telling _me_ to grow up? "Words can hurt too, you know!" I exclaim, stomping my foot and crossing my arms. They don't realise it. After all those years of taunting, they still don't realise that words can also be used to hurt people where it hurts most – in their head, in their heart, in their soul.

"Oh, I know." I freeze. "I know all about it."

I turn towards Lorcan's bed and stare, feeling defeated. He looks pretty bad – not as bad as Lysander, or Malfoy, for that matter, but still quite bad – and the disappointed look in his eyes is enough to make me want to cry. Now, I realise, is not the time to tell him that I like him as more than a friend as well. Not at all. And I wonder if that time will ever come.

"Lorcan," I start feebly, and I fall silent again. "It was an accident. We didn't mean to target you." I'm not sure if they all heard it, but it seems that he did.

He shakes his head. "Of course, Rose. I'm just having trouble believing you nowadays."

That does it for me. Biting my lip to at least refrain from crying until I'm out of the room, I run. I don't care where I'm going – anywhere but there sounds good to me now.


	21. Albus and an aftermath

**A/N**: So... the final chapter's here :) I hope you'll enjoy it, and that you enjoyed the rest of the story as well. And, of course, if you feel like it, please review!

* * *

The day after, I decide to go for a walk around the grounds once again. It's been a few weeks since I've last done that. Everyone else has already left and Lily, Natasha and Francis all promised to bring me some sweets from Honeydukes. I kind of need some chocolate now.

I sit down under a tree by the lake, even though it's quite chilly. Pulling out my diary, I smile. At least this whole operation wasn't for nothing – I have my diary back. And they didn't even manage to open it.

I had expected that I would be happier about it than I actually am now. I guess I still haven't recovered from yesterday's events, and everything they said to me. Looking through the pages of my diary, I sigh. I'm really, really glad they didn't read everything that's in here; there are just too many embarrassing facts and weird descriptions written down.

Should I keep it? Should I keep writing in it? Al tried to steal it once, and he knows what's going to happen if he tries it again. On the other hand, he also knows how to open it. James told me to burn it, but do I want to? In the end, I decide to keep it and burn it another time – perhaps during the Christmas holidays, after Al and I will be forced to talk. It's not a happy foresight, but that's just the way it is.

Madam Pomfrey said yesterday that the boys would be released either today or tomorrow, but knowing her, she'll keep them all there until tomorrow evening. That's good; it means that I can avoid them for a little longer. And after what happened yesterday, I'm very keen on avoiding them for as long as possible.

Their words still hurt. Yes, they've told me that I'm an idiot far too many times, but a danger to society? Even from Malfoy, that stings. And _I _need to grow up? Aren't they the ones who stole my diary? What sixteen year old boy steals girls' diaries? That's what _I_ call immature.

I stick my diary back in my bag and lie back on the ground. The sky is cloudless today; it's a beautiful day for a Hogsmeade visit. But, alternatively, also a beautiful day to just relax on the grounds. I'm very happy that my detention doesn't include cleaning trophies or cauldrons or the Owlery or whatever.

"Rose." I must've dozed off, for all of a sudden, without me realising it, a shadow looms over me.

I fail to suppress a groan as I open one eye. "Al," I say in return, eyeing my cousin tiredly. Sitting up, I look him over. There are no visible signs of poisoning anymore – his face and arms (and who knows what else) have gone back to normal. "Are you all better?"

"I'm completely healthy again, if that's what you're asking," he replies, sitting down next to me. Well, next to me – still a couple of feet away.

"That's good to know," I say quietly, staring at the lake. I really don't know what else to say.

"Well, it's good to know that you're glad I'm okay," he says, and I grimace. We can go on like this forever.

"I didn't mean to poison you," I tell him. "That was an accident. And I certainly didn't want to kill you."

He nods. "Yeah, I thought so. The entire family would be ready to kill _you_."

We sit in a slightly uncomfortable silence for a while. I fiddle with my thumbs and chance a glance at my cousin every few minutes. I wouldn't put it past him if he just came here to sit in silence and irk me.

Sticking my hands in the pockets of my trousers, I'm surprised to find that there's something in there. I don't normally stick things in my pockets – that's what my bag is for. Pulling it out of my pocket, I see that it's a crumpled up note. Then, all of a sudden, I remember – I found it in the Room of Requirement during a Prefect's patrol, weeks ago.

Since I have nothing better to do, I unfold the note. Al, I notice out of the corner of my eye, is looking at me curiously. The piece of parchment seems to have been in many hands – given the fact that there are at least four different handwritings on it, that's not so odd.

_Oi, Lorcan, why aren't you paying attention?  
_I am paying attention.  
_No, he's not. He's just staring off into space. He's taken almost no notes at all.  
__Why?  
__**Yes, why?  
**_I already told you, I am paying attention! Now just let me continue doing so.  
_I know that look. He's thinking about something.  
__**Really? Or is he thinking about someone?  
**__Probably. It's about time he discovered girls. Tell us, Lorcan, who is she?  
_There is nobody at all!  
_**Lysander, what's he doing now?  
**__Staring at the front, of course. Acting as if he's paying attention.  
__Could there be someone in his line of sight?  
__**Doesn't look like it from here…  
**__No, I don't think so either. Wait, he's turning his head slightly. Can't make out why though.  
__**To look at someone, I think  
**__But whom? I can't see anything.  
_Are you still going on about that? Just leave me alone, will you?  
_**We are leaving you alone, aren't we? We'll figure it out ourselves.  
**_No, you won't, because there is nobody.  
_Then why do you keep glancing to the left?  
__He does, doesn't he? But who could it be?  
__**It's just the Gryffindors sitting there.  
**__I think it's Rose, actually. He gets all jumpy whenever she's mentioned.  
__Rose? As in, my cousin?  
__**Rose Weasley? Don't you have better taste?  
**__He's already blushing. I think it's her. Is it?  
_That's none of your business.  
_Is that a yes?_

And that's the end of that discussion. I have a feeling that someone (Lorcan?) crumpled up the parchment at this point and thought he could easily get rid of it by bringing it to the Room of Requirement. Setting it on fire would've been a better idea, but maybe that's just me.

"Where'd you find that?" Apparently, Al couldn't keep his curiosity in check again.

"Room of Requirement," I say, folding up the parchment. "Why?"

He shrugs. "I thought he would've found a better way to get rid of it." Running a hand through his hair, he shakes his head. "But then again, Lorcan isn't really one for common sense; at least, when you are concerned."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask him, frowning at my cousin.

"He can't really think rationally when it's about you." Al looks very amused by now.

"He sure knows how to hide it," I mutter. I wonder what would've happened if I opened that note immediately after finding it. That would've been awkward.

"No, he can't," Al tells me, still looking as if he's about to burst into laughter. "After the frog incident, he was worrying for days that you were now disgusted by him. When you slapped him, he was completely depressed. Which, of course, was nothing compared to how he acted after Lily threw those things in his face last week." He chuckles. "He's even more obvious about it than you are, I daresay."

I redden. That's unexpected. "Did he tell you what Lily said?"

He shakes his head. "No, he didn't. But given the fact that they've fought before and they really don't like each other, it couldn't be good."

"How did you know it even was about me?"

"The only times he acts depressed is when something goes wrong between the two of you," Al says, but I can't help but feel that his reasoning doesn't fully make sense – it's not logical. I decide not to mention it.

"But… I thought you were planning on telling him because I wouldn't tell you how to open my diary."

He frowns. "I don't think I've ever said that. I mean, it would've been a logical thing to do if Lorcan didn't fancy you too, but I've never told you that. Must've been your imagination."

"And Erin," I blurt out without thinking. Al groans, lying back in the grass.

"Right, of course. I told her that, didn't I?" I nod and we're both silent again. Then he continues. "Is it true that she went to Hogsmeade today with Mark?"

"Yeah, she did," I say quietly. My sort of pity for my cousin returns as he just stares at the sky. "But it's not your fault – "

"I know," he says resolutely. "Did you know?"

I bite my lip. "Yes," I reply after a few seconds. "But you wouldn't have believed me anyway."

"I wouldn't," he confirms. "I just can't believe that I was so blind. Half the school must've known. Even my friends knew," he adds in an afterthought, sounding quite bitter. "I wish they had just told me."

There's nothing I can say to that. Well, there is, of course. But this is something between them. They'll have to work this out themselves.

"Why are we always fighting?" I ask in a weak attempt to change the subject. Sitting here, talking to Al – it comes almost naturally to me. As became clear earlier, we just know each other too well.

"I have no idea," he responds, and I'm rather surprised to hear that. "It's weird, isn't it?" He chuckles. "Sometimes I still compare you and Scorpius. I've even told him a couple of times that you do something or other very differently from how he does them. It's so weird how different you two are, like polar opposites. Maybe that's why you don't get along."

No, I don't like the idea of being compared to Malfoy – stupid prick – but it's an explanation. As far as I'm concerned, it's not the correct one though. "I think it's all the pranks you pulled," I tell my cousin, "in first year and after that."

"Yeah, that explains why you hate _him_, but not why he hates _you_," Al counters, and he has a fair point. But to be honest, I have better things to do than wonder why Malfoy hates me. I couldn't care less, as long as he leaves me alone. "Oh well, you'll have to get used to one another if you and Lorcan can actually behave normally enough around each other to start dating." I flush – again. I hadn't even thought about that. "Perhaps you and Scorpius will eventually learn to tolerate each other's presence. Then we could hang out again as well and I could become your overprotective cousin and harass Lorcan all the time."

I roll my eyes. "Don't you already do that anyway?" The last thing I need is an overprotective cousin. Please, I can take care of myself. As I've already proven, of course.

"True," Al says, shrugging. "But, we did learn a lesson from this whole ordeal."

"You did?" I ask, wondering whether or not he's speaking about this whole drama concerning my diary.

"Never do something radical without doing some research first," he says, and I squeeze my eyes shut. I'm not in the mood for vague hints like this.

As he doesn't seem inclined to continue, I ask, "Because?"

"Because the radical plan might not even be needed," he tells me. "You know, the reason for stealing your diary was pretty much to find out how you felt about Lorcan." I almost choke. I didn't see _that_ coming.

"And _stealing my diary_ was the easiest way to find out?" I ask incredulously.

Al shrugs. "At the time, that seemed to be the case indeed. But opening your diary turned out to be much harder than we expected and since we hadn't exactly been paying you an awful lot of attention, we didn't realise how obvious _you_ were around Lorcan. And once I found that out, there was no way back."

"Of course there was," I say, slightly peeved. "You could've given it back. Would've saved us both a lot of time."

"Perhaps," he admits, "but you forget that we had Scorpius in our team, who would never have agreed with that, and then there's that little fact that we weren't really on speaking terms, except to irk each other."

Alright, maybe I forgot about that.

"Besides, it was funny to see how that stressed out Lorcan so much. He absolutely didn't appreciate what we were trying to do for him, even though we were really doing it to reassure him that his… feelings were reciprocated." Al snickers. "And of course, seeing you so angry made it all worth it too."

I huff indignantly. "Still, you could've just asked."

"As if you would've admitted that to us," he says, smirking. "You had your chance when I asked you about making a deal, but you turned that down."

"Why would I trust you?" I ask him. "You already stole my diary – how could I be so sure that I'd get it back as soon as you found the information you were looking for?"

"You couldn't," he says. "Still, it would've saved us all lots of time." I cannot believe that he's using my own argument against me now. Stupid Al. "We just wanted to know about possible feelings for Lorcan. We weren't interested in James' stunts or gossip or your deepest darkest secrets – well, expect for one, of course."

"But you figured that out on yourself, didn't you?" I ask, becoming annoyed at my cousin once again.

"I did indeed," he says cockily. "But Lysander and Scorpius didn't."

"Still, you could've just told them and given me my diary back."

"No," he tells me, "because we promised that we would really read everything if you wouldn't give us a hand. So… that was what I was going for. And, naturally, seeing you so angry and annoyed never gets old."

I cross my arms, fully intending to stop listening to my cousin then and there. I've had it. I now know, and he can just leave again. Preferably now. On the other hand – now that he's here, I can try to annoy him as well.

"So, how _did_ you find out that Erin was cheating on you?"

"That's none of your business," he says grumpily, and I smirk.

"Since when have we cared about that? Spit it out, cousin."

"I already told you, I saw her," he tells me, his expression gone sour. "The night that we had detention."

"And?" I prod. "Did you feel very… sad? Betrayed?"

"You're such a _girl_, Rose," he says, and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, I know. We've been over that before."

He curses under his breath. "You know, Rose, I don't really have time for this."

"Yes, you do," I counter. "You have nowhere else to be, nothing else to do."

Now it's his turn to cross his arms. "Fine," he spats. "You want to know how I felt? Yes, I felt betrayed. No, I didn't feel sad. I had a feeling already but it's never nice to see your suspicions confirmed. I've been thinking all week about what went wrong and why she ever went there in the first place."

"You could always ask her," I say, before realising that that might not be the best idea, "or someone else."

"I guess I will," he says.

"Why didn't you act earlier, if you had your suspicions?" I continue. "And why were you even with her in the first place?"

"As I just said, it's never nice to find out that what you've suspected for so long is actually true," he says. Well, okay… "And as to why we were together… I guess it was fun for as long as it lasted. It was kind of strange at times, but the question of where she could possibly be when I couldn't find her is answered now. Plus, she's good-looking."

I pull a face. "No, she's not. And she's got a rotten personality, too. Plus, you could've used the Map, right?"

My cousin apparently decides not to grace that comment with an answer of sorts, but he stays quiet instead.

"Hey, Al!" we suddenly hear from behind us. Al, of course, is lying right in between trees, so he's visible from afar. I'm not, since this tree keeps me from being seen. Well, that'll make for a nice surprise.

"Hey, Lorcan," Al replies with a lazy smirk my way. "You're out yet?"

"Fortunately, yes," Lorcan says. He's still not close enough to look around the tree and I'm not going to give myself away just yet. "Lysander and Scorpius will probably have to stay for the night though. Anyway, I'm glad it was actually curable. At least it wasn't something much more dangerous."

Now I have to say something, right? Al isn't answering – probably waiting for me to do so – so I respond, "Yeah, sorry. I didn't know that was going to happen." It comes out much quieter than I expected, but both boys heard it anyway. Lorcan looks almost horrified to see me there, and Al smirks again.

"Rose!" Lorcan splutters. "What – I didn't see you there." He looks from me to Al and back, as if trying to figure out why we're both here. No such luck; I myself still haven't figured that out.

Now Al sits up. "Should I leave you two alone?" His smirk is almost unbearable now, and I quickly consider the options. I don't know what would be worse. It'd probably become very awkward anyway.

"No, that's fine," Lorcan mumbles. "I was actually going to head back to the castle – "

"No, you weren't," Al tells him resolutely. "You were going to sit by the lake on this beautiful afternoon in the middle of the autumn."

"No, I was – " Lorcan tries again, not sparing me a glance.

"No, you weren't," Al repeats. What can I say? We Weasleys (that includes the Potters as well) are a stubborn lot.

I roll my eyes and stand up. "I'll just go then," I tell them. The wind is now a little too chilly for my liking anyway and besides, nothing would be more awkward than staying here at the moment.

Al gapes at me while Lorcan still avoids looking at me. I have to admit, it kind of hurts. Quite a lot, actually. "Rose!" Al protests. "We were smack in the middle of a discussion!" _Now_ he decides to try to set us up?

"No, we were done," I correct him and walk back to the castle. I think I'll go to the kitchens. I skipped lunch, as I didn't feel like walking back to the castle from my spot by the lake and then back again earlier this afternoon. They can sit and freeze by the lake a bit longer if they want to, but I'm going to the kitchens.

Half an hour later, I'm still sipping some hot chocolate – my second mug. I finished my food already, and I suppose I'd better go back to the common room soon. Perhaps I could read a little.

I'm about to get up as someone enters the kitchens. "Hey, Rose," I hear, and I look up, slightly surprised, as Lorcan sits down opposite me.

"Hey," I reply, blinking. I didn't expect this; not after what just happened. I bet Al is behind this.

"Listen, Rose," he starts, still not fully looking at me. "I'm sorry about what I said yesterday. And last week."

"I'm sorry for what happened yesterday," I say in response, a small smile tugging on my lips, "and last week." Looking up, he smiles back hesitantly. That's more than good enough for me at this point. "What happened yesterday certainly wasn't planned. Not like that. And Lily – she was actually going to tell you that she was wrong and… stuff like that. But I bet she never did that after all, right?" Yes, I told Lily not to say anything, but I'm certain she was planning on doing so anyway. That's just Lily for you. Perhaps that might run in the family as well.

"No, she didn't," Lorcan replies. "Scorpius did, though."

"He did?" That surprises me even more than the fact that Lorcan's here right now. "I thought he was going to twist my words around completely."

"He's not that bad, Rose," he tells me with a slightly amused smile. I huff; I beg to differ. "Anyway, I'm glad that Lily was just… spewing nonsense there. It's quite a relief."

Our eyes meet for a brief moment before we both blush and look away. I think it's clear even to the two of us by now that we like each other – he told me, after all, and I'm sure Al told him, too – but that doesn't have to mean anything. I can't say I'm very straightforward when it comes to these things, and neither is he. But we'll get there, I'm sure.

"So can we… keep talking again?" I ask once I've fully recovered. It's a first step. Yes, we know each other, but we've hardly talked, these past five years.

He sends me a smile – I'm glad I'm seated right now – and answers, "Sure, why not? That'd be… great." I don't reply to this; it's obvious that he's not done yet. "The more we talk, the sooner we can get over certain… trust issues."

"Trust issues?" I echo. "What trust issues? Do you have – I don't – "

"These past few weeks," he says vaguely. "I mean, we've talked a lot, but we've sometimes not spoken the whole truth, you know? We should – put that behind us. And we can do that by talking."

Alright. If he puts it like that, there could be some trust issues indeed. "That sounds logical," I admit. "But – it's not as if I wanted to keep those… certain things from you."

"I know," he simply says, "and me neither. But it still happened."

I nod. I'm just glad that he's not completely mad and angry and suspicious at me. Plus, there are some things I'm rather curious about now. "So… if we're going to be all honest with one another and all that," I start, "what were you really doing that time when you were… Nargle hunting, or whatever you later said you were doing?"

He opens his mouth and closes it again, and he reddens a bit. "W-Well," he stutters, "if you really want to know. I… uh – I pretty much panicked when you came in all of a sudden so I… dove. I didn't expect to see you there, even though it _was_ your common room and… yeah."

Smiling at him, I shake my head. I cannot believe he actually did that. On the other hand… no, scratch that. I can't think of someone else I know who would do that in a similar situation. "And why did you use the Nargle excuse again later on?" I ask. I wonder if this will have an equally amusing reason.

"I already told you, that was the easiest way of letting you know that I was sending you a message through Hugo," he mutters, probably knowing what my next question will be.

"Why couldn't you just come in?" I ask curiously.

He swallows, and he seems to think for a moment. "You know how – some people can't talk to someone – you know – when they're alone with that person?" If he means what I think he means, then yes. I'm one of those people, usually. So I nod. "It's the other way around for me," he confesses. "I'm one of those people who can't talk to – someone when they're surrounded by others." Oh. That sounds like a legitimate explanation. "Which is why this works much better for me than while having Al around," he adds, and I grin.

"Yeah, well, a lot works much better when Al's not around," I say, and he grins as well.

"I suppose you're right," he says. "So… what was up with Will all the time?"

I groan. "I can't believe you remembered that," I tell him, and he just raises his eyebrows in expectation.

"_I_ can't believe you remembered those Nargle incidents," he counters, and I suppose he has a point.

"He needed my advice," I respond, "about… Natasha."

"Ah," is all I get for an answer – that, and a knowing glance.

We're silent for a while, just sitting there. To my surprise, it doesn't feel awkward at all. It's a comfortable, companionable silence. It's almost enjoyable. At least, that's what it was, because my mouth has to ruin the moment once again. You'd think I get used to it, but I don't. I always hope that things get better, but they never do.

"It's just too bad that we're not in Hogsmeade right now, isn't it?" I ask, examining Lorcan a little more.

I blush a little as he looks up from his hands, only then realising what I possibly insinuated. "Yes, that's a pity indeed," he agrees with a small smile. "But we could always try next time, right?"

I'm sure I'm blushing even more fiercely than moments ago. "You still want to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Of course," he replies somewhat bluntly (and instantly reddens as well). "If you don't have another potion to feed me by then." Remembering the frog incident, I fail to stifle a giggle from escaping my mouth, and he eyes me curiously.

"Forget that happened," I tell him. "You don't want to know."

"It was the frog, wasn't it?" he asks knowingly, and I stare. "Of course. I knew it. Can't you just forget about _that_?"

"No, I don't think I can," I reply, and I swiftly press my lips together again.

"Fine," he gives in. "So, anyway, what do you say? Would you mind giving this whole Hogsmeade thing another shot?"

I smile, my giggles no longer threatening to escape my throat. As I said, we'll get there, sometime, somehow. Al will surely try to meddle, as will Natasha and Francis. Not to speak about Lily, or the rest of our families. But it's all good, because we will get there. This is merely the beginning. "Yes, that sounds lovely," I tell him, and I honestly mean it.


End file.
